Rain Rainith at First Junkins Reunion

By Donald Junkins; published in JFA Newsletter no. 3, Winter 1990

Shakespeare's urging to be merry with a hey and a ho in a downpour was taken up by forty-five Junkins during the August family reunion. Coastal rain showers varied from torrential to steady all day Saturday, August 25, in York, Maine but the rain seemed to inspire the forty-five Junkins cousins who cheerfully managed with and without raingear and umbrellas to hop in and out of cars traveling from the canceled reception at the Jefferd's Tavern to the gratis meeting room of the Best Western Motel on Route 1, to the site of the archaeological dig at the Garrison House cemetery, to the Scotland Bridge Inn across the street from the Junkins farm stone arch, to the McIntyre Garrison, to the John Junkins cemetery off Mill Lane Road (whose headstones had been cleaned with clorox and water for the occasion by Roland Junkins). The piles of cheerfully-doffed dripping coats and hats on the outside porch of the Scotland Bridge Inn, and the sight of lines of Junkinses laughingly wiping their feet on the enter-mat should have caused any hovering Junkins ancestral spirits to smile. Hostess Sylvia Batchelder at this lovely bed and breakfast former Junkins home (Albert B. Junkins, b. 1837) graciously conducted three roomsfull of Junkins cousins through her home, and passed around historic Junkins letters for all to read. Robert and Mary Davis, owners of the McIntyre Garrison House, patiently and cheerfully hosted carsful of wet Junkins cousins through the rooms of their reconstructed Garrison house. Even attic trips were possible for the hearty, and one Junkins young man (Daniel) posed for photographs in the long black greatcoat hanging on a nail in the upstairs bedroom.

Neither were free-time afternoon adventures dampened by the sheets or rain sweeping over York. Between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., the Junkins cousins invented recreation according to their preferences. Some watched the rain-swept coastal surf in parked cars, some found warmth in the wine-cellar of the York Harbor Inn, some changed clothes and rested in motel rooms, and one party headed for North Berwick to visit the well-preserved site of the James Junkins cemetery. This reporter can attest to two Junkins, father and son, traipsing through the woods from their parked car on the Kingsbury Lane dirt road beyond the herb farm to the John Junkins cemetery off Mill Land Road, then walking back on Route 91, thoroughly drenched to the skins. The Knight place and the Daniel Junkins homestead on Mt. Agamenticus eluded these ninth and tenth generation descendants from Daniel2 because of wrong turns at forks in the old road, but they can now direct anyone wanting to walk the back woods of York from Kingsbury Lane to Mill Lane Road. The hot pool at the Best Western Motel warmed and revived these two reunion woods-walkers, and saved for another day a visit to the site of the Daniel Junkins homestead.

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