Family Reunion games can be a particular challenge because there is such a complicated mix of people to entertain. The “roots” generation (the ones who planned this reunion and think it is going to be exciting, and have been looking forward to it for months, and who will be perfectly content to sit in a circle and tell stories for 3 hours) and the “branches” generation (everyone else–i.e. the teenagers, the poor fools who married into this group, and ALL of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren) have to be entertained somehow after the fried chicken buckets are emptied and the brownies are just crumbs in their aluminum foil pans.
Not long ago, my mother scoured through some old family videos, sifted through a few printed life histories, and made a few phone calls, and the result was a handful of fascinating stories about the 8 children her Grandparents had raised. Next, as an “icebreaker” for the reunion, she passed out a “Who Am I” sheet to everyone who attended. Participants simply filled in the blanks with what they thought was the correct name, and the winner won a prize. While the preparation takes a little research, this is one of those family reunion games that serves a purpose beyond simply being fun. It also creates links between generations. See an example of stories from our family below and then do some digging to find your own fun and interesting family stories.
Who Am I?
________ I shot a hole through my mother’s new linoleum.
________ I used my toy saw to saw down 3 of 4 braces holding up the shed – before the thunder scared me and I fled to the house.
________ I was so small when I was born that they put me in a shoe box and kept me on the oven door for several weeks.
________ I married a woman 23 years younger than I.
________ I “mothered” 13 children and hosted numerous other families in my home when they were in need.
________ I was sitting on a chair in the back of a truck on our way to a reunion when I lost my balance and landed in a cherry pie that was to have been served at the reunion.
________ My kids had to come pick me up at the pool hall when I visited them. (The “rest of the story” is that the pool hall was the bus stop for the Greyhound bus she’d come on (remember buses?)
________ I lost my business to bankruptcy because I refused to collect money from the people who owed me. Times were hard and I knew they didn’t have the money or they would have paid me.
________ I loaded Mom’s fresh donuts onto the long handle of a wooden spoon and left a visitor aghast when I ate every one of them while she watched.
________ I got so mad at a rooster that I threw a coal bucket at him and killed him.
________ As a young boy, I lifted a heavy leveler off my injured father after a farm accident. Later, when they asked me how I did it, I replied “someone that I couldn’t see helped me.”
________ I had a pleasant nap in Grandma’s closet while the whole neighborhood searched for me.
________ When my parents were critically injured in a car accident, the EMT team summoned to the accident didn’t know I existed and left the scene without me, in spite of my Mother’s continually asking before she died, “Where is my baby?” Hours later, a passing motorist with his car window down heard me crying and stopped to rescue me.
________ One Christmas, I was given a beautiful porcelain doll, an unusual and extravagant present for our family. My joy was short-lived, however, for my brother later smashed her with a hammer.
As a child, I got to ride in the buggy from Price to the big family reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Unfortunately, my good time was spoiled when I sat in a bed of ants.
________ My wife and I raised 11 kids in a one-room log cabin.
These “teaser” stories were so intriguing that everyone was happy to stick around after dinner to hear “the rest of the story” told by one of the participants who experienced the event (and to find out who won first place for getting the most right answers).
Family Reunion Games Help Connect Generations
Family stories are one good way to try to engage people from all generations, and if the stories are funny, interesting, or give everyone a reason to be proud to be part of this family, they serve a dual purpose: 1) They become part of the oral tradition of stories that can be passed on to future generations and 2) they remind everyone present that the family has survived in part because of it’s stories–because there is proof that grit, determination, humor, and selflessness helped the prior generation survive, and survive well. That holds out the promise that the existing generation can do the same.
