October 27th marked the reinstatement of the annual McKelroy Family Reunion. After my grandfather pasted away, organizing the event had become a task that no one had the time or patience to adopt, so after a couple of years it had just ceased to be.
About a year ago, my Uncle and Father happened to have the chance to play golf with a couple of their cousins up around Memphis and they all decided to get together again for a reunion disguised as a golf scramble. So, the end of November rolls around and we all show up in Grenada, Mississippi's Hugh White State Park (and Golf Course).
It's early morning and the women have decided to go shopping while the men play golf. It's freezing outside and I haven't played golf in about a year. Dad and I hit a few practice balls out on the range while my youngest brother, Andrew, warms up his driving seat in one of the golf carts. After a few minutes, my Uncle James puts a bunch of numbered pieces of paper in his hat and we all draw teams, shake hands like gentlemen and drive off to tee box number one. The first team tees off, makes their way down the fairway, finish up and make off to hole number two. Our team tees off, make our way down the fairway, and I drop a great chip shot about 3 feet from the hole. I'm ecstatic. I haven't played golf in over a year, and if this was a sign of things to come, I was in good shape. We all take turns putting, my Uncle sinks his, we start walking up a hill to our carts and I manage to find the most thoroughly watered patch of grass in Grenada. I miss-step and I'm on my knees; the entire left side of my jeans covered in mud. I found it humorous, but not nearly as much as my brother Andrew. It took a second for me to realized that this was the only pair of pants I had brought with me for the short weekend trip. THIS was the sign I should have waited for... not the false chip shot. Things, golf-wise, went pretty down hill from there apart from sinking a 12ft-ish putt on the back nine. Halfway through the round, we stopped at the clubhouse for a snack and drink and were just in time to watch Ole Miss beat Arkansas. The following nine holes went by pretty quick. I don't remember my final score because I think I stopped recording it. The highlight of the back nine were the deer that were just kind of hanging out around the 11th tee box. Picture below.
Later that afternoon, I had to make a quick run to Walmart to buy replacement blue jeans and then the family piled in to Mom's new van and we headed off to some restaurant in the middle of nowhere for a pre-reunion dinner followed by a viewing of Miss State getting thumped by Alabama.
The next morning, we all checked out of our hotel, drove back to the state park and had lunch with the family. It was a rather quick buffet style lunch b/c a lot of people had to get back on the road. Apparently, someone was thinking super fast, b/c their contribution to the pot-luck was a giant box of Taco Bell tacos. Like always, there was a lot of talk about how and what people were doing these days, kids and school, etc. The only abnormal event was when a couple walked in and started helping themselves to food before realizing they were at the wrong family reunion. They had actually shown up a week late to their own, but were happy to join us for our McKelroy family portrait (as honorary members). After, lunch we said our goodbyes and started the long drive back to Daphne.
