We anticipated a staggered arrival of family from all over on Friday but a lot of family arrived Thursday evening to settle into their hotels. We began to see evidence of Crandalls trickling into town. Some ran into each other at the hotel pools and in the breakfast room. The give-away was the early morning white shirt and ties. Some were able to attend the Gila Valley Temple on Thursday night and Friday morning prior to the start of the reunion. Marilyn Crandall provided some Crandall names to be taken through the temple. Others stayed to watch kids at the Stake Center and get the reunion started.
The Reunion Kick-Off
We opted for the classic Crandall T-shirt design. Crandalls do not really have a coat of arms but one was designed and posted in John Cortland Crandall's genealogy book prior to 1949. Then that same design (in the days before computers and copy machines) was redrawn by hand and enlarged by teenaged Rick Crandall. It appeared on T-shirts in the 1980's and made it's come back for our 2011 Reunion. For the Reunion Kick-Off we passed out T-shirts, Memory Lane Maps, and a deck of personalized photo playing cards (one per family).
Trip down Memory Lane
The Memory Lane Map was created to provide a family experience where you could drive around Graham County with your spouse and/or kids judging the distances and speeds of horse and wagons and early automobiles, adding scenery and setting to family histories and sharing your own personal memories. This map will be kept and added to for future use as we gather Crandall landmarks across the country: Springville, Santa Fe, Washington D.C., Chicago, Phoenix, Graham County, Los Angeles, etc.
Oral History Odyssey
The Oral History Odyssey never got off the ground. We encourage each of you who have opportunity to record audio or video of your oldest generation while they are with us. This may be a project that we can begin now in preparation for the next reunion in a few years.
Visiting and Getting Reacquainted
This was the most important part of the whole reunion. We were able to visit and get reacquainted which was facilitated by bouncy house, rocket launching, basketball, PVC bows 'n arrows and marshmallow guns, and great food. The kids were entertained and local second cousins of the Clarence and Jewel family were invited to attend as well: Aunt Thelma and Aunt Joy, Marilyn Crandall, Suedette and Nolan Reed, Joy Lee, Scott Lee, Brady Lee, Tina Lee, Jim and Candy Hunt, Stan and Lynn Smith and likely more made appearances.
Family History Information Exchange
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Several people were able to share family history information. Digital copies of "Grandpa Clarence's Mission Journal" and "Stan and Elizabeth's Personal History" compiled by Clarence Crandall were made available among other personal histories and photos. If you missed out on this and would like some copies then email Christi Clark at jonnychristi@msn.com and she'll email you digital copies.
Wii: Just Dance 2
People of all ages entertained themselves and also entertained whoever was watching by dancing to the Wii game: "Just Dance 2". We connected a Wii to a projector with large screen and some speakers. Some very fun video footage exists showing at least one person from each generation dancing. It was great exercise and fun!
Bottle Rockets with Jonny
Kids decorated 2 liter soda bottles with colorful duct tape and learned basic flight engineering skills or how to make their bottles fly. They launched their rockets in the middle of the ball field. Check out the video footage on this activity!
Tour into the Past
The Graham County Historical Museum made extensive preparations for our family tour. They marked each item of interest with neon cards, gave prizes to the kids who counted each card, and provided printed handouts. The museum was rich with our family history. We hope all enjoyed seeing these fun relics of the past. Please send a thank you and possibly a donation to them for all of their hard work:
Graham County Historical Society and Museum
P.O. Box 290
Thatcher, AZ 85552
They also have an excellent website to visit from which you can add to your personal Family History photo collections if you know how to "Right Click" and "Save picture". They have digital copies of several of our ancestors' photographs: http://grahammuseum.org/contact.php
Frederick Crandall Readings
Somehow, we didn't remember or we were plenty entertained by other activities, but Uncle Rick has written some children's stories complete with his own illustrations to which the kids didn't have the chance to sit and listen...perhaps another project for a future reunion. Maybe these stories will be published by then. He has also painted a few more paintings that you may have encountered in Mesa LDS bookstores not realizing that they were his paintings.
Ol' Fashioned Hamburger Fry
In honor of the early tradition started by Clarence and Jewel in 1961 as means for drawing the family closer, we opted for an 'Ol Fashioned Hamburger Fry on Friday night. David Pomeroy prepared some sentiments to relate about how it used to be for those of us too young to remember. Some adaptation was required due to the size and scope of our crowd. The sodas came in 2 liter bottles instead of cans for the purpose of making bottle rockets. For practical purposes, there was no whip cream in a nozzle can for our jello but there was some very delicious potato salad courtesy of Sariah Crandall.
“The Runner Game”
For entertainment, we came up with the "Runner Game". We divided into 4 groups: Lella's family, Rick's family, Drucie's family, and the Russ-Tom-Clare family. Each family provided a runner. When a generic item or question was called out, the first runner to bring it to the judge won the points. Then a story or the significance behind each item was briefly explained. The Russ-Tom-Clare family scored the most points winning first bat at the pinatas on the next day. Here were the items and questions:
A picture of Ulysses S. Grant (double points) or Andrew Jackson: Grandpa Clarence would often tuck a $20 or even a $50 bill in the hollow of his hand (spy fashion) when shaking hands with missionaries or college students.
Straw: "Nobody ever drank a soda at Grandpa and Grandma's house without a straw."
Bring me a demonstration of what Grandma Jewel did with her napkin at meal times: She would make a slit in a top corner and slide it over her top button.
On a post-it note write what year Clarence and Jewel married: 1938
Something with a KFC logo: This was the fast-food dinner of choice at their house. It's almost a shame they didn't own stock in it.
Post it note - Grandma Jewel loved puns. One of her favorite was saying that she would always be "half-Wright" What national heritage is her other half? - Danish
Set of car keys: (1) Clarence's first experience driving a car occurred when he was 10 years old. His Uncle Ralph had borrowed Stan's truck and asked young Clarence if he could drive it the 2 miles home to save Uncle Ralph a 2 mile walk back to his own house. Clarence jumped at the opportunity but was intercepted as he drove past the pharmacy on Main St. (2) He also drove his mother from Safford to Phoenix when he was 13 years old to visit his dad in the hospital. AND (3) Anyone who visited often found Grandpa checking their oil and tire pressures before they left.
A namesake: Julie Mae Jacobson won the point for the Jacobsons on this one.
1974 Coin: Grandpa retired in 1974.
Post it Note - How many kids did they have? 6
Post it Note - What is the name of their foster daughters? Nancy and Marilyn Tsosie
5'5" tall person: Samuel Claridge was 5'5" tall, a baker by trade in England. He had never owned or driven cattle or oxen of any kind before arriving in the states and driving a wagon across the plains.
Dr. Pepper: Grandpa's Beverage of choice. We learned that in earlier years it used to be Coke, however.
Post it Note - Name both of Grandma's parents: Frederick Bailey Jacobson and Sarah Loella Wright
5 BONUS POINTS: Can anyone recite either of the poems hanging above the toilet in the cabin: 1) "Close my lid and keep my clean; I'll never tell what I have seen." 2) "A poor little mouse fell in and drowned because someone forgot to put the lid down."
5 BONUS POINTS: This was a last minute addition. The game was fun and seemed to end too soon. How do you correctly spell Lew Frost's name? L-E-W. Now the whole family knows how to spell it correctly.
Pancake Breakfast Uncle Bruce, Melody Hughes, Nikki Clark, and Eva Carpenter stayed after on Thursday night cracking over 100 eggs in preparation for the next morning's breakfast. Then Uncle Bruce, Christi Clark, and Eva Carpenter met early the next morning to scramble eggs, cook sausage, and flip pancakes. Between Uncle Bruce's many years of griddle experience from many scout outings and Eva's chef skills in planning, cooking, and kitchen management, we all enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled eggs with sausage and salsa or ketchup, and pancakes with syrup. Fun and memorable conversations happened behind the scenes too!
We were too hungry to take pictures before - we sure ate up all those pancakes!!
KFC Lunch This meal was also given in memory of Grandpa Clarence and Grandma Jewel. We learned from older grandchildren, however, that this was a tradition that didn't begin until the retirement years in Thatcher. We enjoyed grilled and crispy chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and cole slaw and salad.
Crandall History Presentation
by Marilyn Crandall
Marilyn Crandall (Lyle and Thelma's daughter) is a Family History Consultant at the Mesa Family History Center. She has put a lot of time and research into the Crandall line. She shared an abbreviated history of David Crandall's parents and children. It was from this time period that she found names of people needing temple work done. Her presentation was full of creative research ideas like looking at store records to find our family during a particular time period. Sure enough, they were living there and purchasing at the Newel K. Whitney store despite not leaving any other formal record to search.
Pinata
In the name of stretching reunion funds, Emily proposed that we make our own pinatas so that we could have a smaller one for each age group. We rose to that challenge and learned a new skill. It seems fitting to highlight that experience as yet another example of Ardua Vinco ("I conquer dificulties"). We had fun watching kids bat around the pinatas. We had to use a little duct tape to make them last a bit longer. Hopefully having a supply of suckers in their mouths on the way home made it a somewhat quieter trip.
Leftovers and/or Dinner on your own
We ended the formal reunion activities earlier on this day to allow family to travel back to the Phoenix area before dark and not feel like they were missing anything. KFC leftovers were packaged to send home. Some family still gathered at Casa Manana for dinner.
Thank you for coming to our Crandall Family Reunion!!
We hope you had a great time visiting and remembering. You surely proved family loyalties by braving the June Heat in Arizona! Please see the 2014 Reunion Committee page if you would like to play a part in planning the next one or offering suggestions. Many hands make light work! We realize that life is unpredictable three years away so any offers to help will not be considered commitments until we check in with you again later on (in 2013).
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