WEST SHOKAN, N.Y. — Would you like to spend a holiday weekend with 80 of your relatives? I just did!
In fact, it's something I do every year. You see, my family has a tradition. We call it Buckley Family Weekend. This year was the 50th year we've done it.
Every July 4th weekend, family from all corners of the country gather in the Catskills area of Upstate New York at a small old mountain house my dad's parents, cousins, aunts and uncles chipped in to buy for $18,000 in the 1970s.
Over the years, the family has grown, the fashions have changed, but the event has mostly stayed exactly the same.
Here's what makes it different from most family reunions.
Over the course of three days, the family splits off into two teams for competition - the stars, and the stripes. (You're even assigned a team at birth!)
The youngest Buckleys bring up the flag as the family sings God Bless America, and then the games begin.
There are relay races, volleyball, special kids games, bocce, cornhole, connect four, a family photo contest, and lots more. We even head down to the nearby creek an have a "rubber duck race" for team points.
At the end of the weekend, the points are tallied up and the winning team is awarded the family cup for that year, which has the scores of each weekend engraved dating back to 1971. There are plenty of awards to the champions of the kids games as well, including an MVP trophy.
When I was a kid, it was all about the games for me. Now that I'm older, I really look forward to reconnecting with the family over food, drinks, and conversation.
Simply put, I wouldn't know a lot of these Buckleys if it weren't for this event.
My older relatives had a really great idea in 1971 to simply get the family together for a couple of days to "get away from it all" and celebrate each other.
Whether they knew it or not back then, it keeps the family close even as we've spread out all across the country.
Lots of friends have told me, "My family could never do that!" To which I say, don't knock it until you try it.
That's just my two cents.