Caton Family Homecoming

Today was the Caton family homecoming or reunion, which has been a tradition in the Caton family for many years. I have fond memories of attending every 4th of July when I was growing up. In recent years the date has changed, and for the last couple of years it's been Labor Day weekend. We met at Croatan F.W.B. Church, just around the corner from where we are staying.

As usual, there was plenty of food and tons of yummy desserts and lots of love. Some of the family weren't able to be there. Of course we remembered all who had passed on. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Iris are the only two children of Noah and Lizzie Caton remaining. It was good to see everyone and have a chance to be together.

Beth, Shirley, Aunt Katie, Annette, and Gene Nelson's husband

Gene (family genealogist), ?, Hazel, Evalyn, Lee, Brenda, Aunt Iris, and Beth

Shirley, Reba (friend), Mike Powell, Uncle Jesse, Chuck (Reba's husband), and Floyd White

Uncle Jesse, Lee, Aunt Iris, and Chuck (Reba's husband)

Gabrielle and Geneil

Hazel, Shirley, Ken, and Uncle Jesse

Muriel, Brittany, and Uncle Jesse

When everyone was finished eating, Little Joe was the family auctioneer. He did a great job of keeping everyone laughing and actually managed to sell most of the things that had been contributed. He got everyone howling over a massage cushion with heat and Shiatsu massage--don't ask me how!

The money goes for the fund to pay for next year's ham and supplies. By the way, the lion head is from Shirley's old bathroom decor. Everyone had a lot of fun laughing about her jungle theme too.

After the reunion we went over to Hazel and Mike's house. They had some trees fall, including this one that is still on the house:

Hazel just had a brand new bathroom added on to her house, and boy is it luxurious! She's especially proud of her giant closet.

Lee, Hazel, and Muriel

Robert, Muriel, Aunt Iris, Lee and Hazel in Hazel's kitchen

Our hot water heater decided not to work again this morning. This evening when we got home I cleaned the contacts again, and it's working fine. I wish it was as easy to fix the air conditioning. It has a mysterious condition that makes it work part of the time just fine. Other times it chugs away, but doesn't put out any cold air. We'll have to have it looked at when we get a chance. It's a pain to take it in when it's our home....

This morning when we started off on our walk, Paul invited us in to his "shack" on the water. He built it almost exclusively with salvaged materials. It had water up over the table during the storm, but he's been hard at work cleaning it up. He showed us some of his treasures, including an original photograph of the signing of the Japanese surrender.