Jim's Home Page 

The Hoskins Family

Of Vermilion County Illinois

Introduction

     It may have looked like Army Maneuvers.  Actually it was the Hoskins Family Reunion. You Know, the kind with long tables filled with all kinds of scrumptious food no one's seen the like of since the last reunion.  Lots of people laughing and recalling the Good Old Days. And Games Ah Yes, "The Games".

    The 200 or so Descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Ezeriah Hoskins, who settled in the Potomac-Penfield area before the Civil War, started gathering at the Potomac City park, site of the 17^th annual Reunion, on Friday August 1^st 1980. They had tents and campers and some had come from quite a long distance from other states. They had a wiener roast and games, kind of a reunion warm up, and next day, when more of the family arrived, there was a 50's and 60's Sock Hop and dance contest. Last Sunday what with all the prizes and games and things was the "Special" day. There was an auction of Hoskins made goods from a professional caliber oil painting to a mass of other items, both useful and frivolous, which brought more than five hundred dollars to the treasury to pay for next year's wiener roast, contest prizes, soda pop, cake and ice cream.

     But the "Big Event" was flag football, chosen said Eva Hoskins (Flack) of Pence Ind. "because the Nephews (The High school boys) challenged the Fathers and Uncles to a game of football. Flag football seemed like the mildest."

She changed her mind about "Mild" after the third play. "They threw the flags down. All of a sudden is was Blood and Guts Football!"

     At the end of the game, which the Fathers and Uncles surprised their progeny by winning, Eva's husband Lee Flack, was in the hospital with two broken ribs and a suspected ruptured spleen. Tom Spain of Potomac, Illinois was there with a badly sprained thumb. Freddie "Little Fred" Hoskins Jr. of Williamsport, Indiana was getting treatment for a broken nose. Guest Randy Devore of Georgetown was getting his broken rib taped; guest Dick Waterstradt of Williamsport rural route was being examined for a bruised elbow, and Larry Lovett of Georgetown was being treated for a sprained ankle.

     The Hoskins' family always welcomes guests. A special one this year was Elif Skappel, an exchange student from Ringsakter, Norway, who arrived Saturday to spend the school year with the Sparta, Michigan branch of the family. Because Elif came away from the Reunion without a scratch, the family is giving him a T-Shirt inscribed "I Survived The Hoskins Family Reunion of Potomac, Ill., U.S.A."

The above was taken from the Danville Paper of Aug 1980 Written by Jean Byrum.