Post Visitation Bar Fight

After the visitation, we went to bar in town for beers with my cousins from Iowa Jodi and Connie. Now in order to understand Connie and Jodi, you have to understand where they came from. My Dad grew up in a small town in Iowa - and I mean a small town. We loved going there as kids and hanging out on the farms and in downtown Bellevue, staying at my Grandma's house. In order to get us out of the house, my Dad would give us a few bucks and my brothers and I would walk up to the local store where they would ask us, "Who do you belong to?", meaning they knew we weren't local and they wanted to know our lineage. We'd let them know we were Raymond Kurt's son Jim's kids and they'd in turn share a story of how they knew my Dad, Grandpa or other relative. Our visits would actually make the local paper. We always got a kick out of the fact that everyone in Bellevue loved to sit in their garages in lawn chairs and watch the world go by in the evenings. You had to drive with one hand on top of the steering wheel in order to wave at every person you knew who drove by.

We'd make the eight hour trek to Iowa 3 or 4 times a year as kids, and now once a year for our family reunion. As we've gotten older, we've come to appreciate our cousins even more and really look forward to these get togethers. Connie and Jodi are farm girls, who my Mom loved dearly. We also ride them pretty hard about being from the sticks - until they came to Dewitt, MI for my Mom's funeral.

After the visitation, we invited them out for a beer at the local bar in town, Relli's. My Dad and the rest of my siblings and their spouses were all there along with Connie and Jodi, hanging out eating and drinking. Right in front of us, a bar fight breaks out - and we had front row seats for it. We sat there pretty amused watching the whole thing, except my cousin Jodi who tried to jump in. (She could have whooped them all. She's an Iowa farm girl after all).

The cops got there pretty quickly so I nonchalantly tried to get a picture of the whole thing. The bartender apologized and bought us all a round of drinks. Never a dull moment.

We stayed for a while, laughing hard and catching up, sharing stories about my Mom and other things. It was excellent. I just learned that my cousin Jodi was the number one sales person for all of Mary Kay, complete with Pink Cadillac and a gargantuan "diamond" ring from Mary Kay for the accomplishment.

We've got our family reunion coming up next year in Iowa and the theme is bib-overalls and farm hats. We can't wait.