The Daily Grist

     BEFORE AND AFTER TAKING pictures at the 81st Collett-McKay picnic: Picture No. 1--A motorist with a solid phalanx of automobiles pinning his car against a century-old oak tree in front of him. Picture No. 2--Emery and Bess Bales' perennial press-representative guest, gulping down a second piece of Mary Magee Baugh's maple-syrup pie, walking leisurely over to the scene and gently lifting the tree out by the roots and setting it over in a field and beckoning the stymied motorist to proceed.

     FRIEND AD. COPELAND gets "items," the paper says, from Cope II in Japan. In getting things from Japan, items are better than atoms.

     THE PAPER says that a Dayton man has hiccupped (that may not be the way to spell it but that's the way it sounds) for 17 months. The way everything is I suppose he can't find a dehiccuper in any store in town.

(Provided courtesy of Mary Lou Inwood.)

Collett-McKay Families Hold 81st Picnic

     The Collett and McKay families, which have held an annual picnic in a grove on the Wilmington-New Burlington pike every year since 1866, met again Saturday for their 81st reunion.
     A register which has been kept for many years by Bernard McKay, showed 257 present at the 1946 gathering, the largest group which has been present since 1941. A careful estimate based on signatures in this register shows that approximately 23,335 persons have attended the Collett-McKay picnic in its long history.
     Members of the Collett and McKay families, most of whom live in or near Chester township, began to gather about the middle of the morning. Other relatives and friends of the families came in from more distant points. Besides those from various spots in Ohio, there were the following members of the families who came from out of the state: Mrs. Kathryn McKay Ingram of Oklahoma City; her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Hensley and Homer L. Hensley of Ashland, Ky.; Miss Nelle G. McKay of Lake Wales, Fla.; Mrs. Maurice Collett with her son, McKay, and daughter, Margaret, from New York.
     Three long tables were placed under a grove of young sugar trees and these were soon piled high with fried chicken, blackberry pie and other foods of the season. At about 1 P. M., Mr. Weldon McKay asked Rev. C. H. Wamsley, New Burlington Methodist minister, to invoke the blessing of God, following which the assembled guests dined heartily.
     Nearly everyone remained on the grounds until late afternoon, talking crops, weather, old times and new experiences.
     Mrs. Ella McKay Pidgeon of Columbus street, Wilmington, oldest person present, told of being at the very first Collett-McKay picnic when she was five years old. She couldn't remember much about it, for that was 80 years ago, but she did say that she remembered teetering on a log with another child.
     The youngest member present was Robert Frank Graham, Springfield, born June 27, 1946, grandson of Mrs. Abbie Haydock.

COLLETT-McKAY PICNIC
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10

     According to a report received from Howard Collett of Wilmington, the 81st Annual Collett-McKay Picnic will be held at the grounds for that purpose on Saturday, August 10.
     Mr. Collett also stated that the School Reunion will be held at the Harveysburg School house on Saturday, August 17th.

Collett-McKay Picnic

     Many out-of-town members of the Collett-McKay clan are expected to attend the 81st annual reunion to be held Saturday, at the picnic grounds. This reunion is always held on the second Saturday in August at the same place and there is never any confusion about time or place. Even those who may may not have attended for years know when and where to go to meet the rest of the large group.