A family, a fair

I come from a large family — my mother and father each have several siblings, many of which have children of their own or even grandchildren. Because of the large size of my family, it's proven difficult to keep in touch. I love my extended family, but I don't get to see many of them that often. Spread out across the country and with ages ranging decades, it can be difficult to reconnect. Both sides of my family originated in small towns in Minnesota, so every few years parts of the families will migrate North to reconnect. Last week, both sides of my family did just that.

Warren, Minnesota is a small town where everybody knows your name (Cheers reference intended). Every summer, the well-worn streets are filled with cars for the county fair held just a few blocks from downtown. The fair kicks off with a long street parade drawing crowds and leaving trails of Tootsie Rolls lining the sidewalks. Tractors, trucks, trick-cars and community groups all throwing candy weave their way down the street on their way to the entrance. Later that evening, my family walked to the fair as well.

Virtually all of the family reunions on my dad's side of the family fall during the county fair, so I've been going to this very fair for years on end. Everything looks and feels different as an adult. For starters, the Bingo tent has become exponentially more fun to me each year, and almost every year I weed out a ride I can't believe I used to love. My cousin Koryn and I went on our favorite ride — a Zero Gravity spinner — for the first time as adults. It was still incredibly fun and freeing, but nearly the whole time we found ourselves worrying about younger kids on the ride. Just like the shift in rides, I love fair food just as much as I did when I was a child, but fair food doesn't love me back like it used to. But the biggest perk to being an adult at the family reunion and fair is the new bond I have with many of my cousins. I fall somewhere in the middle of the age spectrum among the cousins on my dad's side. A handful of my cousins are several years older than me, and prior to last week I hadn't had a real conversation with them because of our age gap. Having recently entered The Real World myself, I found a new sort of connection to these older cousins.

I was surprised how much food fostered these connections, but it makes sense. Unsure which new fried thing to try, we'd each get a basket of something and meet at a Bingo table and split them all together. Even just being close to one another and eating the same greasy thing together allowed us to catch up and learn more about one another. As a vegetarian, this proved a little challenging at times because I had to opt out of a good bit of fair food, but I found myself eating a lot of veggie burgers and tacos when I wasn't downing fried pickles and tiny donuts. (It wasn't a healthy week, I'll admit that.)

This past week made me feel truly thankful. I'm thankful that both sides of my family can reunite only hours away in the same state. I'm thankful that I can pick up where I left off with cousins and still be able to make new friends with cousins I don't know well. I'm thankful Warren hosts a fair with the most amazing fireworks in Minnesota. I'm thankful for Bingo, even though I didn't win a single game. Mostly, I'm thankful for the resilience of family members — despite what we've been through since we last met, we always make it work.