Saturday, May 28, 2011

The BASH

Butters Annual Summer Holiday


I am remembering this Memorial Weekend back to all of the fun times we had at the BASH.  We had a wonderful family reunion for  20 years.   My Aunt Lynette had an idea to do an extravaganza 3 day reunion. We didn't want any ol' eat-potato- salad at the park reunion....We voted on an ...eat together..swim together ..sleep together family reunion.  We all thought that would be great to really bond with each other and we had plenty of sleeping places in Bountiful...so all of the out of towners from Colorado, Spanish Fork, Orem and Idaho would travel to Bountiful and we got to have visitors at our home.   

 After the first year we voted on a name...the BASH.... and we all made family banners that we would bring and hang in Grandma's breezeway year after year.

THE BASH was mostly on Memorial weekend, but moved around the summer calendar as well.

We always did some sort of service, whether it be cleaning grandma's yard up, or collecting stuff for another cause.  We assigned out food, crafts and games and activities.  We played soft ball and visited cemeteries.  We also tried to go to church together and would double Grandma Butters' ward attendance.  We even put on a sacrament program a couple of years with the Butters family choir singing Families Can Be Together Forever and Families to Match the Mountains.  We even provided the speakers.  It was truly an extravaganza.    Some years we gathered to share testimonies...and memories of Grandpa Butters.
 I loved every minute of it.  Yes, it was work.  Yes, it took planning.  Yes, it was worth it.
The kids were in cousin heaven.    On Sunday night we always put on a talent show.  Grandpa Butters and Grandma Butters were in the front row cheering us on.  We had a variety of acts.  We had Wayne and Gary dress as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers one year and lip sync, Islands in the Stream.  We had arm pit fart music.  We had break dancing, singing, magic acts, jokes and baton twirling.  We made family videos....ours was Hakuna Matada.... we had treasure hunts and carnivals.
Always a show of some kind.  We even had Guy as Red Green one year with Adam as the side kick Lyle.  It was so funny.
1998
We had BASH university in 1998, where we taught each other things and stuff that we were good at.  While we were having a genealogy type class, my cousins Krystin and Paisley were running the nursery for the under 5 and can't-sit-still set.  It was a great class, then as we went to collect the kids to have lunch...the nursery room was quiet as can be.  We opened the door and all of the kids were duct taped into chairs with tape over their mouths...eyes smiling.  They thought the joke was on us.


1991
I love this pic of  my Grandpa Butters  and Grandma Butters in the front  row.  My mom is sitting by Grandpa with my dad on the ground in front of her, holding Truman.
 This was the last Bash for Grandpa Butters.   I miss Grandpa and Grandma both so much.
1999
We did the BASH a few times down in Spanish Fork/Orem.  It was a good change.  We got to be the guests.  We always ended up back in Bountiful swimming though.  We always had so  many kids in the pool that it looked like people soup!

One memorable eating experience was in Uncle Steve's back yard.  We had just said the prayer and taken the lid off of the chicken gravy for the Hawaiian Haystacks.  We all started smelling poop.  We were checking little kids diapers and blaming the teenagers for "letting one."  It was the GRAVY.  Something happened between the making of it and the eating of it.....or the non eating of it.  This might have been what caused the end of the BASH come to think of it.  It was the stinky straw that broke the family reunion's back.  We all thought it was very funny....my Aunt Dar did not.

One Talent show year we dressed up all of the COLE cousins...my kids, Marcie's kids and Adams kids to represent Grandma and Grandpa B. and their  children..... We had wigs and old clothing  galore.  It was a hoot. 
 Addison was Sir Grant and Megan played Sweet Mother. 
The  song sums up the BASH and who was involved....

(Sung to the Brady Bunch theme song...sort of)
Here’s a story of a great big family
Started by a guy with love light in his eyes
When he saw that redhead named Eulala
He said, “Baby, I think that we should marry
We can go off in the sunset hand in hand.”
She said, “Well, ok …let’s have some babies
A family would be grand.”
Here’s the children they had together
The girls are Darlene, Diane, Lynette and Sharolyn
The boys are Steve and Brad  and Bailey and Grant Michael
(He’s iiving now in Heaven)
Sweet Mother’s happy they all got married
And they all had many children of their own,
And those children had lots of children
We’re never all alone.
There’s an Ostlund, Sweeten, Poulter, Fulton, Morley
There’s a Callister, a Call, a Welch, a Brown
There’s Tarrant, Sweeten, Smith and  a Butters
An Ostlund and a Cole.
There’s a Butters, Ashworth, Butters, Black and Poulter
There’s the Hills, Poulter, Cole and VonLutzow
And it started with Sir Grant and sweet Mother
But that was years ago.
The Butters Bunch
The Butters Bunch
All hundred thirty seven—We’re the Butters Bunch
Every year we try our best to get together
It’s called the BASH—we eat and sleep and laugh and play
We swim and party,  love and learn and make memories
We go on night and day
We do the BASH
We do the BASH
When we’re together we have fun,
We have a BASH!

Change happens.  
We all grow and our families get bigger and family needs change too.
I am so grateful we had the BASH for as many years as we did.  
Now we do our Cole family reunion at  Bear Lake every July.... I hope that lasts forever!
I guess we could call it THE CASH!

3 comments:

Rachel said...

Oh my I totally remember dressing up as Grandma Sheri and pretending to push the buttons on a cell phone with my knuckles like she would because her nails were so long! Bahhahahahah! Good times!

Anonymous said...

Great memories! Sat here and cried while reading this. I love that we had this for so many years. It has made bonds with family members that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I love my family.
And like you I miss my Grandpa and my Sweet Grams very much. We should go get a flatty and a half and half soon--she'd love it.

Good Memories.

bre and add said...

Ahhh! I love this! I love that you all chose to make it a priority-so it was! Can't wait for bear lake this year :)