The month of July was full of travel, family and making new connections. We experienced the Lord’s hand in our lives in a miraculous way. I love the feeling of calm assurances and knowing that we are on the right track. Along with that comes the stress of what lies ahead. How do we make our transition to another province? It’s the logistics that are enormous because of our circumstances.

In the meantime, we also prepared to attend a family reunion. My great grandparents on my dad’s family are Victor and Susan Hatch. My grandmother (dad’s mom) was Lois and she was the fourth of twelve children to Victor and Susan. I bear the distinction of the being the oldest grandchild and the oldest great grandchild. This put me in an awkward position age wise. I often felt, especially in the teenage years that I was between generations. I was too old for the babies and too young for the next generation.

It is so interesting to me that we all have different memories and versions of our ancestors. On my mom’s side of the family, her grandmother was widowed at 35 and was pregnant with baby number six. My grandparents took her into their home for the last 30 years of her life. Whenever we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dennison, Great Grandma Mitchell was also there. I was always a little afraid of her; she came across as very stern to me. On the other hand, my next younger sister, Patti, had a fabulous relationship with her and has very fond memories of Grandma Mitchell.

I have a few memories of Great Grandma Susan. She had beautiful gardens and so many colorful flowers. Great Grandma was a prolific canner of foods and loved to make quilts. She had buckets of stretch candy in her freezer. It was in a multitude of colors and flavors. I did not grow up with treats in our house and I was astounded that there was something besides the bare necessities in a house. When I was twelve, we stopped to visit our great grandparents. I had cut off shorts on and Grandma Susan commented as she was wondering if I wasn’t too cold in those shorts; they seemed a little too short. I felt like I didn’t measure up and not having enough self esteem, it was not a good memory to have. Yet, other members of the family have very fond memories of Victor and Susan. I loved great grandpa Victor. He was gentle and kind.

There are three remaining children from Victor and Susan; Edith Claybert, Opal Greep and Neldon Hatch. They are the three youngest. Neldon’s wife Priscilla would do a demonstration of making stretch candy at each reunion. Everyone looked forward to this treat.

Stretch Candy

2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/4 pound butter for greasing surfaces and hands.

Instructions

• You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe.
• 1. Stir together the sugar, water and vinegar in a heavy saucepan. Clip on candy thermometer and don’t let it touch the bottom of the cooking pan.
• 2. Heat the sugar syrup until the candy thermometer reaches the hard ball stage or 260-265 degrees. Don’t stir while it is cooking.
• 3. Slowly pour the syrup onto a buttered surface like a large cutting board. Be very careful — this is a molten mass of hot syrup. DO NOT scrape bowl. Just let whatever candy comes out, come out. Allow candy to cool for a few minutes.
• 4. As soon as the syrup is slightly cooled, scrape it into a large ball. If you are going to add any flavorings like vanilla or peppermint, now is the time to do this. Flip the ball of candy over several times using some sort of scraper like a candy scraper.
• 5. When it is cool enough to handle, gather the ball of candy into your well-greased hands and pull the candy using both hands until you have reached as far as you can. Fold the pulled part over and repeat. Do this for about 4-5 minutes or until the candy is getting stiff and has turned a beautiful white color.
• 6. Once this happens, pull out a long rope of candy about 1/2″ thick. You can twist this if you want a twisted look for your candy. Lay it out on waxed paper to cool.
• 7. When it has thoroughly cooled, break it into 1 1/2 ” pieces. Wrap each piece of candy in waxed paper and store in airtight container. If candy is sticky, store it in the refrigerator.

Notes

This candy is messy to make – but it is worth it. There also seem to be MANY different Pull Candy recipes on the internet, and they are all a wee bit different.

This summer is to be the last reunion for the Victor and Susan Hatch clan. It seems that some of the twelve kids have been having their own reunions because of the large number of people now as generations have come along.

We have been having reunions for as long as I can remember. Our family moved back from New Brunswick when I was eight years old in 1971. In 1972, we had a reunion in the Okanagan valley. We were at Camp Woods on the lake and it was idyllic for the family. My grandma told my parents that I needed to get out of the water but they said, “Oh, she’s having a good time, she’ll be fine!” Well, blond, blue-eyed me, didn’t fare so well and I ended up with sun stroke and my grandma Lois thought that I was a goner. We also had Sacrament meeting in a cherry orchard amongst the trees on a hillside. It was so wonderful!

In 1974, we had our reunion in Cherry Grove and MacLean’s magazine sent a writer to do an article on the Hatch family. We are in Volume 87 No. 9 issue in 1974. I love seeing the photo that was taken of the family. My great grandparents must have been so proud of their progeny and their ability to gather together. The article is called, “The Hatches of Alberta”. The writer was Herbert Harker and he had been a neighbor and had watched the mass exodus of the Hatch family as they left Glenwood and headed to the Cold Lake area. They had nine children at that time and drove five wagons. They also took 17 horses, 25 cattle, 300 sheep, 2 pigs and 12 chickens. I do remember seeing a photo from the start of their journey and they also had dogs and cats. They were headed out on a 600 mile journey to homestead in a new area. Their whole entourage was a quarter of a mile long. They left on May 1, 1933 and it took them 60 days to get to Cold Lake.

Their family endured many hardships but persevered and came out the stronger. There are so many stories about growing up in that family. Aunt Edith has told the story about the gas powered iron.

She was a teenager and needed to iron her skirt. Her mom warned her about leaving a window open to do the ironing. Well, she fell asleep and ended up blowing the roof off the house. Thankfully, no lives were lost in this incident but definitely the house suffered structural damage as well as a fire that started in the clothes that needed to be ironed.

On my great grandparents 55th anniversary, all twelve of their kids made it home to celebrate. When Aunt Edith asked if they needed to go to church on Sunday, her dad replied that it was not often you saw a couple with all twelve of their adult kids at church and he was able to introduce them during Sunday School.

The legacy we carry is enormous and I am proud to be adopted into it. I remember two years ago when the reunion was held at the Spring Glen campground. I heard some voices tell me as we were packing up, “You are coming home.” I replied, “I have never lived in southern Alberta!” The next day as we were driving into Glenwood to buy ice, my relatives again said, “You are home.” I replied, “You know I’m adopted, right?” They said to me, “You are sealed to us in the temple and you are ours!” Okay, they had me there!

So, this was to be the last reunion and I wondered who I would see again because some of these cousins, I only see at reunions. We all live far apart and these reunions were great at bringing us together. My grandma worried that her family would drift apart after she was gone and she started having her own family reunions with her 5 children and their families. Between health issues and age, things are changing for each family. As I attended church at Cherry Grove ward on Sunday, I wondered when I would be here again. Seeing family with memory loss and the effects of illness is hard but still having compassion and love for each other softens the effects.

I know that our family is eternal and through Christ and His resurrection we will be renewed and shed the perils of our earthly probation. We are here to learn and become more like our Savior.

When I am with my family, the joy and love definitely transcends everything else. It is wonderful to spend time together and catch up on each other’s families plus meet with new little cousins. I met two beautiful little girls from the Stonehocker/Low family. Penny was 2 years old and such a sweetheart. Her sister Pepper was also beautiful and they were such a delight to be around at the reunion. I will miss seeing all the new members of the family as they continue to grow. Those who have passed through the veil get a view of us all, coming and going!