RIVER CITY JOURNAL: DELAYED REUNION MEANS MORE TIME TO COOK

For the first time in memory, the descendants of Hans and Millie have postponed getting together. Does this mean more food?

The report on this year's Miller family reunion, the tribe from Brushy Creek that always schedules its annual get-together on the hottest day of the year, is short.

No reunion. Yet.

For the first time in anyone's memory, the reunion was called off at the last minute because of a serious illness that put my aunt in the intensive-care unit of a St. Louis hospital. These reunions have been going on at least since World War II, and they have been held rain or shine -- mostly shine with monumental humidity -- ever since.

Several years ago there was a concession to the heat of August, when the reunions had traditionally been held. The event was moved to June. In Missouri, as you know, the heat of late June and the heat of early August have a lot in common.

According to another aunt who is the de facto keeper of reunion timetables and other important Miller stuff involving a calendar, this year's reunion hasn't been canceled. The hospitalized aunt is slowly recovering, and there are plans to reschedule sometime in the fall.

Good. Anytime after mid-September is fine with me, because Missouri weather usually turns cooler then. Well, bearable.

Once upon a time it didn't make a bit of difference to me when the reunion was held. Hot, cold, rainy, sunny -- they were all just fine. The important thing was getting together with all those cousins. I was an only child until age 13, so my cousins were like brothers and sisters for the most part. Besides that, all my aunts and my uncle spoiled us all, and what better reason to go to a family reunion?

Here's one: the food. The Millers are all good cooks. They also are rather competitive about their cooking. Some might call it sibling rivalry, but I think there's more to it than that. In any event, woe to anyone who comes to a reunion and fails to take a generous portion of absolutely EVERY dish laid out.

Somebody has to eat all that food, and I happily volunteer.

I hope my sick aunt gets well quickly. And I hope the reunion is rescheduled for one of those great fall days in Missouri when the humidity is low, the sky is so blue it turns purple, there's a gentle breeze and when all the Millers are on their best behavior and try to get along for at least one whole day.

I'd settle for three out of four.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.