(Submitted by D. Howard Doster to Webmaster and Newspaper at the same time.)

     Saturday, August 9, 2014, 165 persons from 11 states, again assembled at the picnic grounds at 5353 Gurneyville Road for lunch and fellowship. The next afternoon, our kids and grandkids left, now, our home-built in 1818 by my g-g-g grandparents, Moses/Abigail Shinn McKay-for their homes in four states.
     In the 1820's, four former northern Virginia Quaker McKay kids married four former northern Virginia half-Quaker Colletts from down the road. The next generation started two Baptist Churches and, also, Mt Pisgah Methodist Church, the site of the first Picnic held in 1866, partly to learn who returned from the Civil War. The site for both the first picnic and the current picnic 1/4 mile SE are on former Moses McKay land.
     Ashlee Doster, our oldest granddaughter, brought her boyfriend to the Picnic from Chicago. The next morning, at Jonah's Run Baptist Church-started in 1838, by Collett's and their McKay spouses-her father, Dave, announced that Ashlee and Dan Wainwright had just come from , now, Doster Road, which runs through the south end of my g-g-g Grandfather Daniel Collett's former land-80 acres of which I now own. Why had they been there? Dan proposed to Ashlee under the Doster Road sign! Their kids could be the 9th generation to own that land.

Reminiscent of Hirem Poor Years ago coffee was made in a large iron kettle by Mr. Hirem Poor. This year one of the cousins resurrected that custom.

     This year marked a transition for the Picnic! We came in a different entrance. The former brick gate posts with bronze plates-explaining where McKay's and Collett's originated-are now displayed in a prominent spot on the grounds, thanks to the work of cousins, Roger and Steve McKay. Thanks to abundant rains, and the work of Steve Pidgeon, John Mothersol, and Steve Collett, the entire 4-acre site was beautiful. Thanks to someone, coffee was brewed on site for perhaps the first time in 60-plus years, over a wood fire in perhaps the former picnic wrought iron tea pot. Thanks to new several cousins setting up the 1878 tables in a different format, some of us had trouble finding where to put our food on the former south end-now east end, of the Collett Table. Thanks to someone, kids of all ages enjoyed sliding down a huge inflated rubber slide, while others played bad-mitten and corn-hole.
     Northern Virginia cousin, Mike McKay, invited those interested to email him at steer_family@hotmail.com;, requesting they be sent swabs which they would use and return so as to learn their DNA. A McKay cousin there has provided limited funds for this project. One of our daughters is cooperating; thus, my immediate family will learn what she learns.
     A committee organized themselves for the 150th annual Picnic celebration next second Saturday in August. That's August 8th, 2015! They want you- even if you are a Collett-McKay cousin who hasn't come-to come next year! Maybe do as we do; namely, have a picnic supper for our immediate family after the noon C-M Picnic.
     Oh, I just saw cousins, Rod, Mark, and John McKay, persons who haven't attended recently. They committed to come next year, and I invited them to place their food on the table with me, if some of you don't direct them elsewhere.
     The 150th Committee is working on special genealogy and other games, and name-tags. They also want to identify, including by GPS location added onto the oldest Clinton/Greene/Warren County maps, all the farms and home-sites occupied around here since 1805 by Collett's and McKay's. Perhaps bring your own site's GPS location, and others you are aware of! My family will be wearing identical shirts. Perhaps we'll also create our family's name tag, starting with Daniel/Mary Haines Collett and Moses/Abigail Shinn McKay, and listing each generation down to us.
     Dr. Maxine Hamilton, age 94, an in-law in the George McKay line, was the oldest person attending. Mary Kathryn Sell, age 92, a Magee, was the oldest in the Aaron Collett line. Jeanette McKay Musser, age 86, was the oldest in the Francis/Mary Collett McKay line. Picnic Trustee, Steve Collett, who didn't share his age, supposed he was the oldest present in the Moses/Rebecca Haines Collett line. At age 81, I suppose I was the oldest in the Jonathan/Sarah McKay Collett line.
     Caroline Edwards Wengler, age 86, was the oldest of the Daniel/Maria McKay Collett line. She is also the great-grandmother of the youngest attendee-Indigo Jane Peters, daughter of Kevin/Sarah Cantey Peters, born 4/13/14.
     I ate lunch with Mary Keppler Dudley, a granddaughter of former Trustee McKay Collett, who, until he died just before the Picnic last year, always brought a walnut cake. Although she's expecting a first baby daughter in December, she says she'll bring a cake like Mac's next year!
     Cousins attending from out of state included the following: Bob and Luella Rowsey, Opelika, Alabama; Virginia and Mary Sell, Boulder, Colorado; Nancy Del Pian, Port Charlotte, and David Ervin, Wilmette, Florida; Robin, Fred, and Evan McKay, Elk Grove; Ashlee Doster and Dan Wainwright, Chicago; Chad, Karen, and Chuck Fabian, Des Plaines, Illinois; Christy Kelley, Avon; Susan Doster and Rick Mertens, West Lafayette, Indiana; Sally and David Sell, Richmond; Alison Sell, Louisville, Kentucky; Dave, Cindi, and Adam Doster, Novi, Michigan; Marilyn Talmage, Nashville, and Susan Rupert, Cowen, Tennessee; Michael McKay, Maria and Sierra Brock, Winchester, Christy Mothersole, Richmond, Virginia; Guy Fields, and Ellen Magee, Madison, Wisconsin.

Changes to the picnic ground entrance
New entrance	New home for the old gate posts