Juggling schedules, budgets, and memories (old and new) can be overwhelming when the task is reuniting families in the nineties. The pace of our lives, coupled with the logistics of living so far apart from each other, has transformed reunion planning into a major undertaking. In marked contrast to the technological advances that have sped up communication on the information highway, moving family members from point A to point B takes ever more advance planning. The baby boomers' life-style (first they went away to college, and then they took up careers far from home) resulted in a decentralized American family. With sights set on a world of possibilities far beyond the picket fences of their old neighborhoods, they were cultural pioneers, not all that dissimilar from their ancestors who migrated to this country. Our contemporary American lives have been shaped by them.
But with all our exploration and traveling, our thoughts inescapably drift back to days when we were in the warm, friendly environment we called home, an environment that was nurturing, loving, and unconditional. Given the hectic pace of our everyday routines, it is inevitable that we yearn to rekindle some of the special feeling we had when we were young. We want to revisit the times when we could not help but learn by assimilation from our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and anyone else who melded into the family fold.
So what do the Walshes and Poolers of Massachusetts, the Weinbergs of California, and the Webbers of Connecticut have in common? They have chosen bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) or country inns as sites for their family reunions. They are not alone: Holding family reunions in inns is a trend that is spreading throughout America.
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