Who says family isn’t dysfunctional? I know mine is, we put the “fun” in dysfunctional. Each year we get together to celebrate our family name by playing games, singing and getting drunk.

It all started in the 1800’s when the first family reunion was held. It took place in Dennison Kansas; in 2011 it took place in Marshall MN. Our ancestors came from France and they were known as the crusaders. Every year since 1880 we have come together to celebrate and remember the good, the crazy and amazing times we’ve had shared.

We started out as one but have grown to several hundred, each year we end up having someone new show up and we welcome them to the family. Every reunion we look back at our family tree and add the newborns or the ones that were married into the family.

The first day we all get there we go to the hotel and just relax we usually will have a barbeque and just sit and catch up, the second day which is usually a Saturday we have our reunion; we go swimming, play ladder ball and bean bag toss. Our family came up with a deal whoever wins the ladder ball or bean bag toss they get ten dollars to spend on something “special”, my uncle Mike seems to always win and he usually goes and buys beer.

When the Gould’s get together there is always loud music and a lot of rambunctiousness. Last year we went to Marshall MN, they had a street dance the Friday before the reunion. All the adults got wasted and I was the designated driver, I only had my permit at the time. The younger kids went and played on the bouncy houses and everything, my cousins and I went and roamed around. We came across this bachelor bus
and we went inside and walked right back off, why? There were strippers. Needless to say my male cousins were enjoying themselves watching the girls.

At the reunion we went fishing and got drunk of course, my father Dean got very drunk and was making all these dance moves like the “wax on, Wax off.” Everyone was just staring at us like we were crazy, but we were just having as much fun as possible.

The newest addition to the family will be here in June little miss Trighton Jezzibelle, my aunt and uncle Sally and James are very excited to have their first child and so is the rest of the family. This year we will be doing something a little different, we will be making t-shirts. The younger generation (the teenagers) will be in control this next year. The elders didn’t want to go through the hassle and stress of putting everything together.

So what is a family without love, you can not define it. As the years go on our reunion will get bigger and bigger but we will still keep our name and not change what we do best in our dys”fun”ctional family.