Read Reunions

The Read family has a long history of reunions. My grandpa, Lloyd Read (1890–1989) told me the Reads and Porters had started holding family reunions before 1900. He said they were more like work parties or harvest parties at first. Here’s a picture taken at one of these in Aumsville, Oregon, around 1890.

One hundred years ago, in 1914, the Reads gathered their large family in Aumsville to celebrate the 50^th wedding anniversary of Clifton Kittridge Read and Elizabeth Nancy Porter Read. They had all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren there, along with a number of the Porters. Here is a photograph of the Reads. I wish I had access to the original, because when this copy was made in the 1980s, it was done using a camera and traditional film and only when the film was developed the poor quality became apparent.

Here is who is in this picture:

Front row:  Winnona and Lola (daughters of John F. & Jessie Read); Ruth and Echo (daughters of Silas & Millie Read); Grandpa CK Read, Grandma EN Read holding Viola (daughter of Lloyd & Lillie Read); Alice, Clarice, and Earl (standing behind Clarice—children of Nettie Read & Everett Downing); Kenneth Porter (son of Jessie Read & Roy Porter).

Women’s row: Millie Rodgers Read holding son Mark; May Robertson Read; Sarah Isabelle Read; Jessie Read Porter; Jessie West Read; Lillie Munroe Read; Leatha Williams (daughter of Virgil & May Read); Mabel Foland; Eva Read Foland; Ethel Read MacCulloch holding daughter Flora; Nettie Read Downing.

Men’s row: George Sidney Read; Virgil Henry Read; Allan Foland; Lloyd and Ross (sons of Virgil & May Read); John Read holding daughter Grace; Guy (mostly hidden—son of Virgil & May); Roy Porter holding son Harold; Silas Read; Everett Downing (half cut off).

The Read-Porter annual picnic continued for a number of years, but during the Great Depression it discontinued as families spread out and children grew up and moved away. I got the bright idea with a cousin, Daraleen Wade (a granddaughter of Alice Read who is sitting next to Grandma Read in the photo above), that we should revive the Read-Porter picnic, so we did it for three more years in the 1970s. We had a good time, but there wasn’t sufficient interest to continue it. (Those of you who know, name us all!)

The interest in our family was in celebrating Grammy and Grandpa’s wedding anniversaries. They had a big, formal reunion in 1960 for their 50^th anniversary. Here is their family at that time:

Front row: Clarence, Grandpa, Grammy, Carl.

Back row: Retta, Barbara, Viola, Alice, Charlotte, Marj, Herb.

Ten years later my parents took me, my sister, and my closest older brother out of school to go to Oregon that October weekend. I remember the great-aunts coming up to me and saying, “How you’ve grown!” until I wanted to shout, “Did you expect me to shrink?” I was not one of your more understanding, patient children. I went somewhere to sulk. 

But here is a picture of Grammy and Grandpa with their fancy cake.

The next summer in July there was another reunion. I think it was to celebrate Uncle Ross and Aunt LaVerne’s 50^th wedding anniversary. Here’re the pictures from it. I always laugh at the one that was intended to reproduce the 1960 portrait, because there’s Uncle Carl yelling at his granddaughter to get out of the picture, and everybody else looks happy, and somehow the back row got mixed up compared to where they stood in 1960: here we have Barb, Alice, Charlotte, Retta, Vi, Marj, and Herb.

The one with the spouses in it make me laugh too, because there’s Auntie Retta making wisecracks to Barb on the end—love that! Left to right: Clarence and Myra; Fred and Marj; Claude and Alice; Charlotte; Dorothy and Carl; Thelma and Herb; Vi and John; George and Retta; Barb. I don’t know why Arnold Hattan is missing, but Walt McGinnis would not have appeared in any photograph for love or money! I’m going to make a style critique here and pronounce Auntie Retta’s dress the best one there—does she look great or what?—color, cut, and fit are all perfect on her. Ok, a close second-place three-way tie go to Auntie Myra and Grammy for their suits, and Barb for her gorgeous A-line—classy! Special mention to my mom for being the hands-down prettiest there (I am not biased).

The 1980 reunion photo for Grammy and Grandpa’s 70^th anniversary is a paste-up job, pre-Photoshop era. This time it was Auntie Retta who wasn’t going to have her photograph taken for love or money. As soon as I found that out, I felt that the gauntlet had been thrown down—I took the challenge to get a photograph of her anyhow. Under the guise of taking pictures of anybody and everybody else, I stalked her and got her. Ha!

She wouldn’t be in this picture of “Grammy’s Girls”—here are Alice, Vi, Grammy, Marj, and Charlotte. Isn’t this a wonderful photograph?

And here is the cake.

When you reach 70 years of marriage, your relatives will gather to celebrate rather more often than every ten years. 

So here is the 1985 reunion, when Grammy and Grandpa had been married 75 years. I wish I had been able to get a better photograph, but there were more professional photographers who got the center position. In any case, it made me laugh at the time because there was no getting them all to pay attention and look anything like unified! Left to right in back of Grammy and Grandpa are Barb, Retta, Charlotte, Clarence, Alice, Carl, Marj, Vi, and Herb.

Grandpa was tired of having pictures taken, so I almost didn’t get them with their cake. One of the uncles arranged to have a television station send a cameraman, and so they were on television news that evening. I never got to see it! I wonder where that videotape went?

[Later note: Barb got hold of it and sent a dvd copy to me, and I know many others got one too.]

Someone suggested that we gather and celebrate every six months from that time, but that suggestion went no where.

This picture is my very favorite of all the pictures I have seen of Grammy and Grandpa. And I took it! It was at Christmas 1981, and when I asked if I could do a picture of them, Grandpa suggested they use a pose like the one a newspaper cameraman had done the year before. But our photograph turned out much better—maybe not technically, but in warmth.

I can hardly wait to see my Read relatives at our upcoming reunion!