Michigan Family Reunion - Michigan: Sturgis

Bogen Cousin’s Reunion

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Today is the Bogen Family Cousin’s Reunion (the Bogens are my mother’s side of the family).  The reunion gathering started at 1:00 at my cousin Julie’s home, but we wanted to visit Sturgis first (Sturgis, Michigan, not South Dakota), so we started out early.  Sturgis is where both my parents were born and most of my mother’s side of the family still live in the area.

Sturgis, where we'll be today, is added to the map.

The drive from Coloma to Sturgis normally takes about an hour and a half, but it was such a beautiful drive on the back roads yesterday, we decided to do it again and today's drive was very picturesque too, but it did add some time to our trip.

Our first stop was at the So Vintage Shop in downtown Sturgis owned by my cousin Mark and his wife Kelly’s daughter Brittany.  Kelly originally started the shop and sold it to Brittany a few years ago and it looks like Brittany is doing a great business, it’s a very nice shop.

After visiting the So Vintage Shop, we decided to drive by my grandparent’s old house (my dad’s side of the family) and the adjacent house that my great grandparents lived in just east of Sturgis.  The houses were a little worn, but they both looked the same as they always did.

I always found it interesting that my grandmother lived in virtually the same place her entire life.  My great grandparents owned a large farm where my grandmother grew up and when she got married, they gave her and my grandfather land to build a house on.  So, after she got married, my grandmother, who lived until her late 80s, moved to a home less than a hundred yards from where she was born and lived the rest of her life there. 

It was getting close to 1:00, so we headed off to Julie’s house.  She lives out in the country outside of Sturgis in a very nice house in a beautiful, wooded setting.  Almost everyone was there by the time we arrived, and we immediately started to get reacquainted.  All of my cousins were there along with their spouse and even a few of their children were there.

The last to arrive was my cousin Rick on a tractor.  It turned out it was my grandfather’s old tractor that he had restored.  It was beautifully done and looked great, but it was much smaller than I remembered from when I was little 😉.  We gathered around the tractor and chatted, and that led to a picture of all the male cousins grouped around and on it.

 

My brother Doug (next to me) and my male cousins Mark, Mike and Ron behind us, and Rick in the blue shirt at the front of the tractor.  Rick and Ron are twins by the way.

Julie called us all into lunch and it was delicious.  I would guess there was around 20 to 25 people there, and Julie did a great job of putting it together.  She said she entertains a lot and it showed, it was very well done, thank you so much Julie.

We were happily surprised after lunch to find that my cousin Mike was going to perform for us,  Mike is a very talented musician. He got a degree in music and became a music teacher, but didn’t really like teaching so after a couple of years, he quit and spent the rest of his working life as a truck driver.  He pursued his musical career as a sideline and now in retirement he performs around the area, and we were excited to see and hear him play.  He played for an hour and was very good, everyone really enjoyed it.  He likes the same type of music that Val and I do, so that made it even better.

My cousin Mike entertains us, he is very talented.

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking to everyone, taking some group pictures and having a great time.  The weather had gotten quite warm, but there was plenty of shade, so everyone stayed cool.  Time flew by and we were surprised when someone said it was 5:30, the afternoon went by so quickly.

These are all my cousins.  From left to right there is Mike, Joe, my brother Doug, Me, Julie, Ann Marie, Mark, Cheryl, Ron, and on the tractor, Rick.

 

Another group pictures of my cousins with Aunt Judy standing next to Rick by the tractor seat.

And a picture of almost the whole group who was there.  That's my Aunt Judy standing next to Julie, and my brother Doug and his wife Janis (in red) are standing behind the dog.

It was time to head back to Coloma, and Aunt Judy rode back with us.  We thought we had taken the back roads to get here, but Judy led us back on some really back roads.  It was a very nice and scenic drive back to Coloma, but a little crowded as there were five of us in the car; luckily, we had rented a full-size car.

Aunt Judy had moved to Coloma from Sturgis a few years ago to be near Ann Maire and her kids, so we had never seen where she lived, so when we arrived back in Coloma we visited with her in her house for a while.  She lives in a very nice, spacious duplex that is very near Paw Paw Lake.  She really likes it and it’s obvious to see why, it’s a great place for her.

It had been a long day for us, so after we left Judy’s, we returned to our log house and spent the evening talking and relaxing.