2016 family traditions winner
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Families come in all shapes and sizes and no matter how you define your family, one thing is certain— nothing is more important in our lives than those we love. Family vacations are to be treasured because they allow us time to slow down and just be together, surrounded by the ones we love.
Thanks to all of you who submitted an entry for our annual contest. We received numerous, outstanding entries and have chosen a winning family who this year captures the spirit of“ Tradition” on Emerald Isle. The winning entries can be viewed in their entirety on our website at www. EIRFamilyTraditions. com.
We invite all of our Emerald Isle Realty guests to enter. First prize is a free one-week vacation on Emerald Isle during our Islander or Sports season! See our website for submission information: www. EIRFamilyTraditions. com.
THE
RIVES FAMILY REUNION: A TRADITION
My family has a habit; a nearly 60-year-old one. We can’ t stop it and there seems to be no cure. Honestly, none of us want to stop. Some folks might call it an“ addiction,” but we call it a“ Family Tradition.” Webster’ s Dictionary calls it“ something that is handed down one generation to another.” We always do it at the beach.
Currently five generations are involved and everyone that hears about what we do is surprised, shocked even. Lots of people simply don’ t believe it. And we’ re getting ready to do it again next summer in July for the 22nd time in 57 years.
It all started in the 1950s quite by accident. A North Carolina mother, Florence Rives( my grandmother), wanted to see her son. He lived in Arizona and barely got home once a year. He had fought in WWII and had been one of the lucky ones to return. She wished he were nearer. My grandfather, Arthur Rives, had died in 1944, while my Uncle A. R.( Alston Ramsey) was still fighting on the frontlines.
The remaining seven of her nine children were much closer; five girls and two boys living, one small son buried as a child.
One of her daughters, my Aunt Julia, suggested to their mother( my grandmother) that perhaps they all gather at the North Carolina coast for a nice long week at the beach and share a cottage.
And just like that our tradition was born. In 1960, 14 of 35 Rives descendants, including my grandmother and her son A. R, shared a crowded cottage on the beautiful North Carolina coast.
The next summer, all 35 Rives( my grandmother, all eight of her children, their spouses and 20 little ones, including me) gathered again for a week-long reunion, happily crowded into three cottages sideby-side.
( That little girl hugging her knee on the railing with my grandmother and her daughters is me.)
Now, fast forward to 2017. Currently, nearly 200 descendants of my grandparents are putting holds
and deposits on approximately 25 cottages at the Crystal Coast on Emerald Isle. During the week of July 22-29, 2017,“ Rives” flags bearing our family’ s Coat of Arms will be flying high from each of those cottages.
Over the decades of our reunions, I’ ve had the profound honor of sitting on the beach for hours and telling the younger ones who their greatgrandmother Florence was and telling stories about their great-uncles and aunts. I also get to share about their great-aunts, Julia, now 96, and my mother, Sarah Lynn, now 88; the last two remaining of the original eight siblings.
At the 1987 reunion I babysat for a sweet little cousin who is now married and pregnant with her first child. She will be bringing a precious new Rives to the reunion in 2017, a new great-grandchild for my Aunt Julia. And my mother, Sarah Lynn, welcomed a new great-granddaughter in August 2016 as well. What a profound privilege to be a part of this family that gathers on the coast every three years and loves on one another.
So if you happen to be on Emerald Isle, North Carolina in July of 2017, you’ ll see my“ Rives Family” flag flying proudly from Emerald Isle Realty’ s“ Buena Vista” cottage. And if you run into an unusually large group of folks on the beach sporting matching“ Rives” t-shirts with # RivesRule koozies in hand... by all means introduce yourself. Become a part of our Rives Family tradition.
The Rives Family