The Greatest Weekend of the Year

I could really write an entire book about my Proctor family reunion, but I will try and capture the heart of it on this post. Since 1993 my Proctor family has held a reunion. The Proctor’s are my maternal family and it is a large family, and for the most part a very close family with strong ties to our West Virginia heritage. My Grandparents Sylvester and Erma (Smith) Proctor were married in 1921 and during that marriage which spanned 60 years they had 11 children, 33 grandchildren and over 40 great grandchildren, and too many to count great

great and beyond generations; like I stated a very large family. Today those heirs gather on the weekend following Labor Day at a 4H camp (Camp Conger) in north central Ohio for a weekend of family fun. Starting in 1993 my cousin Jo Spangler Bailey and my aunt Edith Spangler Proctor, following the death of her sister, decided that life was much too short for family to not set aside one day every year for a reunion. The Proctor Family Reunion has evolved in many ways from the food we serve to the activities we do. Those one-day reunions were held between Edison Park in Milan, Ohio and Veteran’s Memorial Lake Park in Norwalk, Ohio. From starting out with a lunch-meat main course to the full-fledged menu we serve today, the reunion has evolved over time. One event that has probably been a main staple for the reunion is the Auction we hold to raise money for future reunions. Even that event has gone from a family “yard sale” type event to an auction that has family members using their creativity and capturing the essence of who we as Proctors are with their donations. The auction alone brings in no less than $1,000 a year. In 2005, we decided to begin our weekend reunions with West Virginia as the location, a camp, large enough to accommodate us was found and held our 1st Weekend Reunion. While it was a very fun time, we sure were green on planning such an event and we ended up eating a lot…I mean a lot of pizza. In 2006 the reunion lost the camp we had used in West Virginia because of financial reasons and we were on the hunt for a new camp. We found Camp Conger by accident and when we visited the camp we knew immediately we had found where we belonged, even though it meant returning to Ohio, I don’t think we’ve ever been disappointed in that decision. In 2006, we also started offering a t-shirt and in 2007 we officially named our reunion the Proctor Family Reunion – Hillbilly Hilton and we have kept that designation ever since, so as the reunion just
celebrated 24 years this past weekend, Hillbilly Hilton is only 11 years old. We think we will keep the name as the camp is our version of a Hilton Hotel, a Hillbilly version that is. Over the years we have done it all…in the beginning we had Proctor Idol, where my mother Vonda Proctor Wyatt and aunt Corkey Proctor Turley teamed up to be the Twisted Sisters one year and the Crooked Aunts the next year, and in all of that we had Lorene (Yonie) Proctor Waldron and Sue Ann Proctor as Sonny and Cher one year winning the coveted “Virgil” award…think Grammy or Oscar in a Proctor way. We’ve also been entertained by the Spice Girls, Nancy Sinatra, Loretta Lynn, the guys from Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Elvis, and this year the Thriller Zombies returned. We crown a Miss Hillbilly Hilton each year and for the inaugural event, Vonda Wyatt won, followed by Steve Chambers (Proctors never discriminate), Jackie Boggess, Dianna Motley, Corkey Turley and our current queen for 2017, Jo Bailey – all of which represented our family very well during their year of reign. We have played horseshoes, cornhole, have an annual fishing tournament, we’ve had a casino night, Rook tournaments, Robber’s Game, children’s carnivals, a fashion show and Bingo. We’ve held a Rubber Duck Regatta for a few years, we have raffles of extraordinary baskets all that are lovingly put together by Sue Ann Proctor, a 50/50 that nets nearly $100 a year and starting in 2008 Vonda Sue’s General Store. In the beginning the store was no more than a table in the dining hall and has grown with the dedication of my mother Vonda, to our current proprietor Jackie Boggess since 2012 following my mother’s death to a cabin all for itself. The store is stocked each year with home canned goods, baked goods, pepperoni rolls, RC cola, Moon Pies and an array of other items from year to year that is donated by family members. On Saturday morning my generation, the grandchildren of Vess and Erma cook a country style breakfast that includes fresh homemade biscuits, sausage gravy, scrambled eggs and fried apples – it is tradition to gather on Friday evening and peel apples for the breakfast the next day. Dinner on Saturday is all our favorites we remember growing up, roast beef, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and wieners, green beans, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers in vinegar. Before we eat we honor all our family members that can’t be with us with a Memorial video of pictures of our loved ones set to music, a very emotional time for everyone yet a very important event for us in honoring their lives. So, each year much planning goes into the event, for me, my cousins Arlene Spangler Chambers and Dianna Proctor Motley it is simply a labor of love. The Thursday before the reunion we do all the shopping for our groceries and supplies for the weekend, this has brought the three of us together and we have formed a very close bond. Each year as we drive down the gravel road through a cow pasture, sometimes having to stop and wait for the cow to mosey across the drive, leading to Camp Conger, we know that for three days we are some very fortunate people, being given the gift of a fun and loving family and celebrating the spirit of being a Proctor, and being very proud of it too!

I am putting together a scrolling photo gallery of photos from all our past reunion to give you a better understanding of what an extraordinary weekend this really is. I’m a little technologically challenged and I’m working on it…look for a future post, of just Hillbilly Hilton photos.

Each year the only food we ask family to bring is desserts to share over the weekend – I’m including my recipe for Bread Pudding – it must have been good, it disappeared quick!