By Patrick F. Cannon

Last weekend, for the first time in 5 years (Covid intervened; it’s usually held every  two years), I attended the Donnelly Family Reunion at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort, located about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania’s beautiful Laurel Highlands. The family originated in the Pittsburgh area; the majority still live in Western Pennsylvania or Ohio, but some came from Chicago, New York, Florida, and even California.

            Attendees were all descendants of the children of Frank and Catherine Donnelly, my mother’s parents. All of their children are now gone. I’m in the next generation, and  the second oldest of nine surviving cousins. I didn’t count, but there must have been 50 or 60 people there from four generations. To be honest, I didn’t know who some of the little kids belonged to, but they all had a ball.

            We had group dinners on Friday and Saturday evenings. Although some folks brought special dishes, the meals were catered, as befits the family’s increasing prosperity. The 2016 reunion marked the 50^th anniversary. The early ones were held at Renziehausen Park in McKeesport, PA.  In those days, dinners were pot luck. There was always fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, pickled beets and eggs, Jell-O molds, and cold beer and pop. My cousins and I were younger then, of course, so a softball game before dinner was traditional.

            The reunion is now being organized by my children’s generation.  No softball game is possible, but the kids are kept busy with various games. One of them was a three-legged race, which some of the adults also gave a shot, with hilarious results. The reunion and many of these games were organized by Jill Spear, the daughter of my cousin Jim Suttman and his wife Linda.

            As usual, the finale was the traditional multi-generational egg toss. For many years, the major domo has been another Suttman cousin, Bill. I’m ashamed to say that my daughter Beth and I were the first out. She was blameless; it was I who dropped the egg. It was held in a light rain. Only thunder, lightning and torrential rain who have caused cancellation!

            One of the reasons I love going to Seven Springs is that nothing seems to change in the area. Once you get off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, everything is familiar. You pass no Walmart’s, or large retailers of any kind. You stop for groceries at Sarnelli’s; beer and wine are sold on the lower level. It’s very much like the corner grocery used to be; it has everything you actually need for a short stay, and the people are friendly. Up the road is a farm stand where the justly famous local peaches are sold.

            Maybe there’s just no room for big-box stores. Level building sites are few and far between. Seven Springs sits at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet. The resort offers skiing in the winter. In the summer, there’s golf, tennis, pickleball (!), horseback riding, fishing, and skeet shooting. If you’re up to it emotionally, it’s near the Flight 93 9/11 National Memorial. This year, I again visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater, the summer home he designed for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh department store fame (that’s it in the photo). Accompanying me this time were my son Patrick, daughter Beth and her husband Boyd. (By the way, the fall color rivals anything you’ll find in New England.)

            I think the first reunion was in 1966. At 85, I’m  the second oldest; my cousin Jim Goldstrohm is nearly 87 and I was pleased to find him as healthy and talkative as ever. I look forward to seeing him two years from now at the next reunion, where I fully intend to catch the egg at least once!

Copyright 2023, Patrick F. Cannon