You need to get reservations early for the Memorial Day Family Reunions! In Morehead to Grason, Sandy Hook, West Liberty and Paintsville, and other eastern Kentucky towns, the hotels fill up quickly with family returning home to honor the memories of their ancesters. Jessica and I have reservations at the Laurel Gorge Inn, Sandy Hook, Kentucky: Phone: (606) 738-5515, for the Memorial Day reunion.
Many of our extended family will gather on the Fannin-Eldridge Hill and partake in the memorial services and later large dinner and visiting time down at the Isonville School. We will put our flowers on the beds of our loved ones, sing some songs, and have a short service. It is very important to climb the hill if at all possible rather than catch a ride in one of the four-wheelers taking the ill, elderly and our-of-shape to the top. As a child we were given the impression that those that could no longer climb the hill were apt to be planted on it the next year!
Some have been planted in our recent history, and the grief is still fresh. Others we know only through the stories of our parents, passed down from their parents. Following the service a group of cousins will walk down the hill and up a small hollow and put flowers on Dick's grave too.
Sometimes we have to wade through brambles and weeds to get to Dick's grave, and other times, someone who lives in the area goes ahead, and clears it ahead of time. That is always appreciated as this is copperhead country. Our children ask "Why is Dick's grave so far away from the others?" "Why is Dick buried here alone?" We answer from our oral history, include some actual history, and lay our flowers on his grave. We may sing Amazing Grace as we remember this former slave that is such a part of our family legacy.
Have you heard Ralph Stanley's CD, Mountain Preacher's Child ? A friend gave me a copy, and the songs bring back so many memories, especially the one about "Walking Up this Hill on Decoration Day." When we were very small we went often "back to Kentucky" on Friday nights after Dad got off work at the Delco Products in Dayton, Ohio. "Decoration Day" weekend meant we would get to climb the big hill where all the moss covered tombstones grew out of the ground.
The hill our family climbed most often was the one in the Newcombe Valley of Isonville, Kentucky, called the "Ben Barker." A very steep hill, I would try to run a little, then stop and rest and look back at where my parents and grandparents were behind me. Before long, I would leave them all way behind, and I would be at the top, waiting for them to arrive. Daddy (Robert E. Fannin) often was chosen to preach on the hill up on the freshly built platform. It was a great honor. I would get restless sitting on the hard hand hewn benches, and Mom would let me go play. I would carefully walk among the beds of my ancesters and greet these great and great-great grandparents and extended family that our oral history made seem like a current presence in my life.
The Ben Barker is very full now. Our Uncle Marvin Fannin (son of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin made land available up on the Fannin-Eldridge Hill where Great-Grandpa Rolly Fannin (son of Bryant and Sarah "Sally" (Watson) Fannin, and his son and our Great-Uncle, Clyde Fannin were buried, and resting alone. The area of graves has expanded to include Uncle Ralph Fannin ((son of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin), our Aunt Grovie (daughter of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin, her first husband, Jay Eldridge, an infant grandchild of cousin Charlie Eldridge (son of Grovie (Fannin) and Jay Eldridge, and even our beloved Uncle Marvin himself. Most recently added was a precious little boy not quite six, little Travis Luke Eldridge, another grandchild of Cousin Charlie and his wife, Janey. Six year olds should not have to fight cancer.
We will partake in the oral traditions, share them with the younger generations, meet at the Isonville School for a wonderful potluck meal. "Walking up this Hill, on Decoration Day."
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