My husband’s family was from Pittsburgh. His father had five sisters and no brothers. The Bonstein clan was close-knit. Each year they gathered for holidays, celebrations, and reunions.
We lived in New Jersey for most of our married lives. We raised four daughters. Gene has one sister and she and her husband have three daughters. The seven girls were like stepping stones and grew up together in New Jersey, within an easy drive of each other. We had dinners together and cookouts. We visited back and forth a lot.
Originally, our family reunions were in Pittsburgh, but as the girls grew up and the family got bigger and bigger, we needed our own celebrations. As the years went by, we travelled less and less to Pittsburgh.
We started having reunions in New Jersey, mostly on the Jersey shore. We would rent a house for a week, and gather our smaller clan together to have fun. They were great times, the kids playing badminton, building sandcastles, strolling the beach. Carol and I cooked hot dogs and hamburgers and spaghetti for dinner and pancakes for breakfast.
This went on for years, but then the girls grew up and got married, Some of them moved to other states. Gene and I moved to North Carolina. As the family spread out, Gene and I started having reunions with just our daughters and their families. Gene’s sister started doing the same.
Now, we rent beach houses on the Carolina Coast, or cabins the mountains of Tennessee. The family keeps growing. We now have over twenty members of the Bonstein Clan. Four daughters, four sons-in-law, and ten grandchildren. The grandchildren are beginning to get married and we just had our first great-grandson!
Best of all, the family reunions and celebrations continue. At time marches on, there may be further splits, but I believe the reunions will continue.
It’s been so much fun, and a great way to really get to know each other.
