Saturday July 16 - Claresholm, Alberta, a town of just under 4,000, in the heart of southern farm and ranch country. It's a tidy town, clearly geared to serving the local industries, and to providing the amenities needed by local citizens. There's a fair sized grocery store, a nice main street, and some of the usual fast food joints along highway 2, which runs right through town; but not quite the usual number of them, a Dairy Queen, a Tim's, that's about it. There are also at least 4 liquor stores, so that also tells you something.

We're out on the relatively flat prairie, so you can see for miles, the canola fields brilliantly yellow as a foreground for the foothills off in the distance, hugging the horizon. You can probably see for 50 or 60 miles, maybe more. Got  to love the prairies, the softness of the air, the land that stretches off in all directions to a faraway line of sight, the big sky, which seems endless in its dimensions. Looking across the canola field this morning, we could see two ears poking above the crop, a deer in the midst of the field feeding.

We came here last night, after having dinner with good friends Rick and Diane Dunn at the Calgary airport. We hadn't seen them for 4 or 5 years, so it was great to catch up with them, and to find them doing really well. They haven't changed a bit. Rick still loves to take the right wing side of things, poking and prodding the liberal side of us as much as possible. Diane is just as lovely as ever.

Got our Chevy Impala, an upgrade, at the very busy Avis agency, which seemed to have all of the business. We proceeded down the Deerfoot Trail, or highway 2, which runs straight from Calgary, through High River, where my dad was born, and on to Claresholm. We stopped at the village of Stavely, found the community hall, and there was the assembled Peterman clan, getting their reunion off to a good start. Lots of hugs, and chatting, and circulating, warmly welcomed by the group. We stayed until the two hour time difference clicked in, faded, and headed on to Claresholm to find our motel, which turned out to be a nice facilityd, tucked away on the southern edge of town.

A word about the reunion. The Peterman clan began its tenure in Alberta in the early 1900s, when the family moved to the Coronation area from the U.S. to start a homestead. There were three children, Pete, Bill and Anne. Anne was my mother's mother. Bill married Martha, who had emigrated at age 18 from Holland to work as a family maid. They had 6 children. Each of them but the youngest had 4 children, the youngest, Joan, only producing 2. So that's a total of 22 first cousins. Of that total, 19 were present at this reunion, along with a number of their children. Of the six originals, only Annie, Cora and Terry are still alive and well, and all three were in attendance. Total attendees: around 60.

Today was a long day of socializing, chatting and games. Cribbage was one of the mainstays, but other games were played as well. But a lot of time was also spent with cousins catching up with each other, as they are fairly well scattered around. Two meals were prepared in the kitchen by the 4 cousins in charge, who calculated how much the whole thing cost per person.  I think it was 23 bucks apiece. Bargain if there ever was one, as both meals were great. The evening was capped off with two huge birthday cakes presented to Terry, who will be 85 next month, yours truly, who will be 75 next month, and Wendy, Terry's daughter, who will be 65 next month. Missing, sadly, was my mother, who would have been 95 next month. So our little traditional celebration continues.

Tomorrow morning, there will a gathering for coffee back in Stavely, as people head back home. It's been a great chance to reconnect with this side of my mother's family. I brought a bunch of pictures that I dug out of Dad's files, and they were much enjoyed, especially by Terry and her nephew Billy and his wife Linda, who were all very fond of my parents. They kept all of the pictures to scan, and add to the Peterman archives.

Tiring to socialize for most of a full day, but glad we came. Tomorrow, we will go by Coronation, where all of this began, to look for my Dad's parents and grandparents gravestones. Then on to Edmonton. More later. Stay tuned.