Bringing it all back home

Chris Reynolds drove from Ohio to spend the holiday weekend with his family in Conway, which he didn't know he had until a few years ago.

Reynolds, a musician, poet and teacher, reconnected with Josie Dee Reynolds McClain, 91, of Conway, while researching his genealogy. The two had regular phone conversations on Saturdays to help fill in the family tree, and in 2002, Chris started coming to Reynolds family reunions "to get in touch with the roots again," he said, and bringing his music with him.

Family member Brenda McClain said introducing music into the equation "rejuvenated" the yearly get-together.

"It's a universal language," she said.

On Saturday, Reynolds and his brother, Rob Reynolds, of Mississippi, were at Josie's home in Conway with about 30 other family members, many also from out-of-state, playing music and telling stories.

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"It's feeling like you have a sense of home; a sense of home older than we thought we had," he said.

"It helps you find out who you are to know where you come from," Rob added.

The "old home place" where lifelong Conway residents Marvin and Ollie Reynolds raised Josie Dee and her six siblings was on East Oak Street, near where DeBoard's Electronics now sits, Marvine Ely Reynolds, Jose Dee's sister, said, and the family spent some time over the weekend visiting their old neighborhood and the graves of family members who've gone on.

Marvine and her husband came to Conway from Texas for the reunion and said it's still a shock to see how Conway's grown since she grew up here.

The Conway School District was small enough back then that the student body was "just like a family," she said, "having parties in your house and overnight sleepovers and things kids really don't do anymore."

She was a majorette in the school band and entertained all over town at festivals and for civic organizations, sometimes, her husband added, twirling a flaming baton.

"That was our entertainment back then," she said.

The "old home place" was a couple of blocks from the city limits, Marvine said, and there were still a few dirt roads out there.

"It's just amazing to come back," she said. "I can't believe the number of schools and malls and things that have been added."

Josie Dee said she wasn't sure how far back her family's roots in Conway go. Her grandfather, I. R. Reynolds, was the Faulkner County Judge in the early '20s. In a handwritten campaign flyer from 1920 I. R. Reynolds promised to look after "the preservation of the court house" and "the preservation of road machinery."

Some things don't change.

(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)