Family Reunion Time

I’m headed out today for a trip to Pittsburgh to attend the 39th annual ALAFFFA Family Reunion. ALAFFFA is the acronym created by my Uncle John Figlar who started the reunion in 1967. It stands for the surnames of the seven children of John and Verona Straka Figlar (Abbott, Lizanov, Alzo, Figlar, Figlar, Figlar, Augenstein).

In 1991, I interviewed my Uncle John for my thesis project and eventual book Three Slovak Women, and he talked candidly about what he had hoped to accomplish by starting a yearly reunion:

“We just keep it going every year, and hopefully I would like to see it keep going until I can’t go anymore, I’ll be dead, but I hope you guys will keep on doing the same thing every year—try to get there for the reunion.”

Sadly, my Uncle John passed away in 1995, but thanks to his vision and inspiration, ALAFFFA is still going strong!

I probably won’t post any items for the next two days as I take time to visit with family and enjoy the reunion festivities! I’ll write all about it in my next post early next week!