CELEBRATING 100!

This year my Father’s Maternal side of the family celebrated Grandpa and Grandma Ogden’s 100th Wedding Anniversary with one last 3 day reunion for the descendants of  their 9 children.  It included a few hundred relatives reaching down 5 generations.

Each family was represented with different colors of T-shirts.  It was fun to see all of the memorabilia that different family members brought to share and display on tables.  Photos and documents and histories as well. 

I never knew my Great Grandpa Walt, but I do remember Great Grandma Mary.  We lived next door to her for a few years when I was young.

I’m always being told many stories of Grandpa and his wrestling days at BYU.  I think the picture below of the students standing on the Y is the first one.  They were the first class to whitewash the Y on the mountain.  He is at the very bottom in the middle holding the bucket of whitewash.  He wasn’t tall in stature, but very strong and could do chin ups like no other.  Grandma loved to write poetry and us grandchildren little songs while we sat in her living room.  I remember bringing her a bouquet of flowers on Easter one year.

When I look at Grandpa Walt’s picture I see where quite a few of my genes come from.  Grandma Olive ( his daughter) and My Dad look so much like him.  There’s the family saying of oh, you got the “Ogden Mouth”.

It was very touching to have the family at a flag ceremony on the last day up at the cemetery.  My Great Uncle Ted died while in the service.  He left a wife and one daughter.  His flag was replaced this year with a new one, after decades of flight.  It was retired to his only daughter who is now in her later years.  It was touching to watch even the smallest of the children there with hands on their hearts singing in chorus “Till We Meet”. 

I bet Grandpa & Grandma never imagined a posterity so far reaching.  What a tribute to them to see how many families were able to gather together to celebrate their lives.  It was very touching.