Every year at the end of September, the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren of Ples and Emma Pilkinton gather beside the river at Beavers Bend State Park in southeastern Oklahoma for a joyous annual family reunion. For the first time, but not the last, I was a part of that happy reunion and was welcomed with open arms by people I had last seen as a child more than 50 years ago.
Ples and Emma had 5 children - Elsie, Dottie, Sadie, Thelma and Ples. They had other children who did not survive infancy in that harsh time and place. I can remember my dad, Ples, telling me tales about all seven of them living and traveling in a covered wagon. His sisters always called him "Brother" or "Grubber" even when they were all adults. Daddy's prowess with a rifle was not a matter of sport but a matter of necessity to fill the dinner pot and he taught me to shoot at a young age. Try as I might, I never developed a taste for squirrel, rabbit or possum which was often on the dinner table when I was a child.
He said one of their first homes was a dugout, a hole dug out of the side of a hill with a sod covered extended roof. Ples didn't stay in school very long, up to the fourth grade I think he said, because there was farming to do and later both he and his father found work on the railroad. He said that when he went to school it was a "fur piece" to walk and his lunch was usually a biscuit. When he was in his 50s, he eschewed carbohydrates and especially bread because he was a weight lifter and wanted to keep his body lean but I often saw him eyeing the biscuits with longing.
I loved to listen to those tales about his youth and some of his expressions still sprinkle my own speech. He always called potatoes "Irish potatoes" to differentiate them from sweet potatoes. Bread was "light bread" if it was white. He had a marvelous green thumb and could make any seed sprout and thrive almost magically. I've always believed that people who are close to the earth and have that special rapport with growing things are nearer to God than the rest of us.
Here are a few pictures from the reunion.
Ansalee and her niece, Amanda Pilkington.
Amanda and her husband Judd Carolyn Fears and her husband Tommy
Donda Pilkington and Kathy Pilkington Donda and cousin Teresa Ann Marquard
Joanne's husband, Eddie Gabe Kelsey - What a storyteller!
Gabe and Betty Kelsey - Chan & Chung not pictured Carolyn and Joanne
Joanne's family - 3 generations Katherine Masters, Teresa Ann, Merideth - 3 generations
Waiting for dinner Kathy Pilkington
Kathy, Amanda, Judd Margaret Pilkington, Whitney, Donda, McKinsey
Margaret, Donda, Kathy Merideth Marquard
Mickey Pilkington and family Mickey
Mickey and Kathy Pilkington Mickey and Margaret
Mickey and Shirlene The inimitable Shirlene - what a cook!
Shawn and Crystal Pilkington Betty and Shirlene making a great dinner for everyone
Shirlene Teresa Ann
Betty, Carolyn and Shirlene Ty Pilkington - tree climber extraordinaire
Teresa Ann and Merideth
At the last reunion, each of us vowed to bring our old pictures next year and perhaps we can help each other identify the people in the pictures. Not one person at the reunion knew the name of the parents of Ples and Emma so I did a little digging and came up with the information below. William Pilkinton was as far back as I could trace the family. William was born around 1680 in England. I have found Revolutionary War records for Larkin, census, tax and marriage records for Ambrose and Drury. This is a rough chart because I really don't know what I'm doing. If anyone has more or better information, let me know and I'll add it. See you next year!
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