FAMILY REUNION
by Simon Crowell
The Smith family gathered last weekend on the outskirts of Newby Village on The Isle of Wight, for their Family Reunion, which is held every 5 years. I chatted with Jeff Smith about the reunion and he told me over 20 family members attended from as far away as Ryde and Wooton.
As most of you know, the Smith family is a noted family in Ryde touching base over the years in local politics, horses and of course the annual May Pole dancing on the village green.
The family has always been strong community supporters and by the sounds of the reunion, quite a fun-loving group. Indeed, Granny Smith (76) is to be featured in the 2011 Newby Women's Institute's first Nude Calendar. She is well know around the village for poking her walking cane into the backsides of local school children as they pass her house on the way to and from school.
If you, the reader, were waiting in a long queue outside the fish shop, on Booth Street, last weekend around 6 pm and wondered why you had to wait so long for your fish 'n'chips, well it was included in the Smith Family Scavenger Hunt organized by Cousin Jodie Smith from Ryde, and YOU my friend were part of the Smith Family Reunion.
Maybe we can learn something from the Smith Family in this day and age when people spend more time watching television than they do talking to relatives.....At the end of the day, family is all we really have...unless you are an orphan with no relatives at all and that's really sad.
