A golden family reunion in Glen Arbor

By David Pistorius
Sun contributor

In late July, two weeks before the Aug. 2 megastorm dropped trees helter sketler on Glen Arbor, approximately 100 members of the Tuschhoff family gathered here for their 50th family reunion (they come from far and wide, and meet every 5 years, typically near a National Park). You couldn’t miss them, playing an East vs. West softball game in Glen Arbor’s public lawn on Tuesday, July 21, on the corner of M-22 and Lake St. (kitty corner from Art’s Tavern).

Here is a little information about our family reunion. My grandfather, John Tuschhoff was a Methodist minister and turned 90 in 1965. I had a cousin from Missouri get married that year and they wanted him to marry them. My grandfather had 7 children. We lived in Blue Mound, Ill, which is a small town in central Illinois. Relatives came from all over for the wedding and celebration of his birthday. We called it Big 90. He liked it so well that he suggested we get the family together every 5 years and we have been doing it ever since. He passed away at the age of 93 and only two children still survive. My Uncle Jack who is 93 and my Mother who will be 91 this year. Uncle Jack couldn’t make the trip to Glen Arbor but my Mother did. We skyped Uncle Jack in one night which was a lot of fun.

Typically 2-4 cousins are on reunion planning committee and it usually lasts 3 nights and four days and is in July every 5 years. This year we celebrated 50 years as this was Big 140. We have relatives all over the country an have approximately 100 folks or so show up. We like National Parks or pretty areas to explore. We have been to the Puget Sound, Sequoia National Forrest,in California, Golden, Colorado, Branson, Missouri, North Carolina, Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota and now Sleeping Bear Dunes National Shoreline. We have even duplicated a couple of spots. When we get together we are very active. We always have our meals together and traditionally we talk about family history, sing and dance, and each family performs a family skit, which is usually lots of laughs. We have always had an East/West softball or wiffle ball game with the Mississippi river as the dividing line. Each reunion we have a t-shirt made up which represents where we are at. Many times folks are assigned different duties in preparation of meals or clean up. We always open with a Tushhoff family flag raising ceremony and take down the flag at the close and present to the next committee members. We try to involve the young folks as much as possible.

Since I was on the committee this time, I wanted to find a place that was cooler in July and within a national park. Mostly because this most likely would be last reunion my Mom & Uncle Jack could attend. And it was within driving distance. I discovered The Homestead resort online and a few other spots in Michigan and last fall my wife and I went up on scouting trip. We were very pleased with the beauty in the area and the quaintness of Glen Arbor. It had all of the activities everyone enjoys outdoors and The Homestead could accommodate such a large group especially for our evening meals and festivities. We did rent the Glen Arbor (Township Hall) on Monday and had “Bad” Sue (Nichols) a local caterer provide two meals for us. The Community Center was perfect and Sue did fantastic job with the food. We did a caravan out to the scenic drive and had a wonderful Glen Arbor day. For the East/West game we stumbled across the empty lot on Monday and it worked out perfect for us. The game finished tied 1-1. Kind of tough to find an opening on the field with 25 fielders out there. How appropriate. For the time we were in Glen Arbor the weather was spectacular. We enjoyed the local shops and restaurants.