The Parable of the Lawn Chairs

When I was a little girl, I looked forward to the Tenney reunions every summer!  They started at a placed called "Camp-O-Rama" in Prescott, Arizona.  It was the typical camping experience with dirt and sage brush.  But then some how we found PARADISE and for the rest of my growing up years we held our yearly Tenney Reunions at a place called, "Rancho Bonito".  It definitely fit it's name.

As we drove into the little valley there was a huge grass field in the middle where we played all our games and races.  Surrounding the grass were beautiful trees, that provided make believe kitchens for our make shift homes for the next 3 days.  But the highlight to me was the natural swimming hole!  At one end it filled with fresh water and then the other end it would let the water spill out into the near by river.  Oh what exquisite joy we had as kids to be here!  We looked forward to it all year and never wanted it to end.

I remember when we first starting going to Rancho Bonito, I was just a little girl.  My mom was a busy mom and seemed to bring everything except for the kitchen sink to these reunions.  It was so fun to see her set up our make shift kitchen, and wash basin, and mirror area.  I loved it.  It almost reminded me of my favorite childhood books, "The Boxcar children" how they did the same thing.

As mom and all of her sisters were busily setting up the kitchens, my dad and all the uncles were setting up the tents.  All the kids barely could stand it until they had helped clean out the cars, so they could go change into their swimming suits and jump into the pool and cool off.

Grandma Tenney and the older generation each camped with their respective families.  They were young enough to help cook and help with the younger kids a little bit.  But as the years drew on, I started to notice a shift in responsibility.  Grandma Tenney, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Vida and Uncle Alvin soon became too old to be very helpful in the kitchen.  So they started sitting in lawn chairs together, so they could watch the activities of all their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

They were so adorable with their big straw hats and scarfs to hold their hats on and they usually always sat in a row with their these lawn chairs so they could visit.  We as kids would be running and playing and run by and say, "Hi Grandma, I love you and run up and give her a kiss and run off."  Many years went by and soon my dear Grandma Tenney died, along with all of the other precious senior family members we all loved and respected.  

Then one year it hit me.  It is what I call the Parable of the Lawn Chairs.  Now I was a busy mother with my small children, setting up camp, being creative like my mom did and trying to set up our own little kitchen and wash basin and mirror.  I needed something from the car and turned to ask one of my kids to go get it, but they were long gone.  Their clothes on the floor of the tent, with signs that swimming attire had been pulled out and they were now down at the good old familiar swimming hole.  My mind raced back to those days of leisure where all the cares I had were to get to the swimming hole as fast as I could so I could be with all of my cousins.  I smiled as I stepped out of the tent heading to the car.

As I walked out of my little "kitchen", it was then that it hit me.  There in a very familiar formation sat the lawn chairs of old.  Yet this time, they were filled with my mother,

(Aunt Pearl), Aunt Opal, Aunt Naydene, Aunt Nina, Aunt Dode and Aunt Edythe.  As I looked up, I did a double take.  Here each of these precious women in my life all had on their straw hats, with various scarfs and sunglasses, as they sat visiting and watching their grandchildren.

When did it happen?  When did they become the new occupants of those much loved Lawn chairs?  I glanced up to see some of my children run over to my mother in dripping wet swimming suits, whisper something to her for a moment, then hug and kiss her and run back to the swimming hole again!

Wow - what a powerful moment for me!  It's called TRADITION!!!!  And that's why we do what we do year after year with our reunions.  And day after day with our families, as we bow our heads in prayer and open our scriptures and read together from their pages.  We want to pass the same torch that was passed to us and never let it die!

This last July, our little Garvin family had our own reunion with testimony meeting and all!  I was very sick with my Ovarian cancer and I wasn't able to help one bit and many times not even sit up.  So what did my husband and kids bring for me to sit in?  You guessed it right!  A LAWN CHAIR!!!!  One afternoon as lunch was being prepared, I looked over and took my husband's hand sitting next to me in his LAWN CHAIR.  I smiled at him and a flood of emotions and memories came rushing back to me.

Have we prepare our children enough to carry the torch?  In humble gratitude I whisper to myself and pray that we have!  Then I comfortably recline back in my "fancy" LAWN CHAIR and wait for lunch to be served!