Here’s a bit from an old Topeka newspaper clipping (probably from 60+ years ago):

Grin, and if you’re at Chesney Park, you’ll have a Barrett.

Everywhere you look, there’ll always, it seems, be a member of the Barrett clan. Daily, the brothers and sisters invade the park for their exercise…

In the William Barrett family there are nine children, ranging in age from thirteen to one. Pauline is the oldest, but she is crippled. When she visits the park, her brothers and sisters bring her in a wagon and care for her as carefully as they would a baby. While she is in the park, Pauline is never alone…

Then there’s an adorable picture of seven of said eight Barrett kiddos that I’ll try to scan and get up here once I get home. My mother-in-law, Carolyn, is the youngest of the Barrett “Brothers and Sisters” and she wasn’t even born yet at the time this article came out! Pauline and Paul are no longer with us but there are still eight remaining Barrett siblings going strong here at the reunion!

Tonight’s our last night here at Amelia Island then tomorrow we jump in the car and head off for Savannah, where we’ll drop Frank off at the airport (he’s flying home to Denver tomorrow) and then Carolyn, Pete and I will drive onward to Hilton Head for a few more days.

It’s been really rough here at the Amelia Island Plantation. The mornings are the hardest, what with the huge buffet of hot pancakes, crispy bacon, fresh fruit and freshly squeezed OJ every day. After that it’s challenging to get our suits on and then we have to make the incredible decision whether to go to the beach or the pool first. Once that decision’s finally (if ever) made, then we have to walk all the way there and lie down for a couple hours, visiting with family and generally trying our hardest to have some fun. Depending on which we chose first, the beach or the pool, we usually end up swapping locations after lunch at the beach-side grill. After a couple more hours water-side, we drag our exhausted booties up the elevators and to our rooms where we just have to nap for an hour or so more to rebuild our energy just so we can go find a mouth-watering dinner, usually consisting of fresh seafood of some sort (tonight I had swordfish that was to die for!). After dinner tonight we were forced to go back to the beach and make s’mores with more family around three bonfires and several lounge chairs. I even had to go shell-hunting again with miss Hannah: we found some more lovely specimens, thankyouverymuch. And now I have left my Honey at the bar with some of the younger second cousins where he is forcing down another bucket of VooDoo Juice. Poor thing. I count the moments until we are released from this hell called Paradise!