South Dakota, the ranch, Summer, 1958

One of many summer family reunions at the ranch. Relatives in my mother's huge family would come and go all summer, probably to the exhaustion of my grandparents. (Grandpa, Rolla Burkholder, is in the back, far right.) We had lots of group portraits in front of these same trees when the sun was at maximum blinding level. For the kids this was the worst possible activity. The four kids here are my brothers and me.

It would be fun now to see all the aunts' and uncles' collections of these standard yearly shots. The Burkholders had six children, 21 grandchildren and, before they died, one great-grandchild - my son. I was their oldest grandchild and, because the families lived all over the country, some cousins have not known each other very well.