Our Fourth Veazey-Veasey Reunion

The young people were treated to a visit to the Montgomery Zoo and joined the adults for luch at Eastern Hills. The Saturday evening banquet was held at the Embassy Suites Hotel. A committee of local cousins, chaired by Rev. Terry Veazey, hosted this event. They asked me if I would continue with the newsletter mailings and handle registrations for their event. At every meeting when the entertainment came up for discussion, J. W. always said he wanted a "Belly Dancer."

Well, who would have ever thought that his preacher cousin would engage one of "those" to fulfill his request. (She really did keep it decent.) We weren't sure whether J. W. wanted to laugh or cry when his personal entertainment was presented. You can't say the Veazeys don't have a lively event for their annual reunions. You never can tell what may happen. We are very fortunate to have a number of talented cousins who share their talent with us at our reunion dinners. Cousin Leroy invited his kinfolks to visit Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1997.

I printed out a 170 page "descendants chart for John Veazey" from my database on continous paper that year, thinking we could drape it over the balcony of the interior courtyard for a display. Gracious cousins scotch taped all the seams in the paper so it would not tear and I began to "let it down." Only about 1/3 of those pages were dropped before it "hit the bottom." We had approximately 180 cousins attend this reunion.

The birth of the Genealogy Workshop took place in the lobby of the Embassy Suites
while hard core researchers compared notes.

A highlight of our trip back to North Carolina, was a stop in Cleveland, Tennessee, to tour President's Baking Company. We got a first hand look at where our "Cookie Monster" Cousin makes all of those goodies that he shares with his kinfolks from time to time. We have the three Powell granddaughters with us and they really enjoyed that cookie that came directly off the assembly line. It was during this visit that Cousin Gene extended the invitation to visit Chattanooga in 1998.