Highlights of the 2018 Spiker Family Reunion

The OLD Reunion Pictures are Here!

By Bobbi Spiker-Conley

Our family has been doin’ this “reunion thing” for a really long time. By now, we like to think we’re pretty good at it. We even have pictures! Problem is,we haven’t always been AS good at sharing the photos with the rest of the family. It’s time to change things up a bit. Let 2018 be remembered as the Year of the PICTURES.

Let’s begin with one of our favorite images – the Group Photo. I uploaded several of mine to a scrapbook in the Living Room. I will attempt to add a list of names at a future date. In the meantime, I’m hoping you will have more - and better quality - group shots that you’ll share with me. It would be so wonderful to have a copy of EVERY year, don’t you agree?

Click here to flip through the album.

The NEW Reunion Pictures are Here!!

By Missy Spangler Stotts

We are trying to share the pictures in a couple ways so that everyone can get them however they want, and in whatever format may be easiest for them. The photos were taken by Kile and Kelly Hale. You can find their fan page on Facebook at PhotographyByHale. (Just a little promotional blurb, but feel free to “like” their page.) You may reach them by email at photographybyhale17@gmail.com or by phone at 304-871-6672.*

Kile and Kelly wrote:

The pictures are set up so that you may freely download/save them to your own computer and print as many copies as you’d like. If you would prefer to order prints through us, all you need to do is let us know (1) the picture number, (2) the size and, (3) the quantity. We’ll take care of getting the prints to you. Just reach out to us and we can walk you through the process.

We can also make copies of our slideshow (see the YouTube video below) on CD/DVD for just $15 (shipping included.)

Photo Prints Pricing:

The photographs are located here:  Spiker Reunion 2018 by PhotographyByHale

These pictures really capture how special this place is to everyone, and how special family is. Thanks for letting us share your special day. We really enjoyed it.

Sincerely,

Kile and Kelly

Photography by Hale

The CREEPY Reunion Pictures are Here!!!

By Bobbi Spiker Conley based on conversations with Mike, Brock, Missy & others

As one that rarely gets to attend the annual reunions, I want to know all the details about everything that happened over the weekend. So when I asked about one of my favorite traditions - the (relatively new) Spiker Auction - my daughter obliged with a brief list of who donated what, ending with “Mike sold a creepy picture from the house of two women that no-one knew, but whose eyes followed you.”

THAT got my attention. It got my sister, Melanie’s, attention too. ”Ooooooo…who got the creepy picture? I could have scared my grandkids with it! mwhahahahaha!!!” (Yes, Melanie and I love creepy, scary things, and there is just a hint of evil in us.)

Sis-in-law Jeannie answered, “Brock purchased the picture. LOL! I don’t know why, because it was the reason his little boy couldn’t sleep; he was afraid of the picture.”

So I went to the source(s) and here’s how the story unfolded:

ME to MISSY: I heard your hubby “won” a creepy picture of two women whose eyes followed you. Will you send me a copy? Can you tell me the story behind it?

MISSY:  I will defer this to Brock. I want nothing to do with this. HaHa!! Neither does Beckett. LOL. But I’ve attached a picture of it to help explain. 

BROCK:  This is a very important photo with too much history to be put in one email.  The exact source/date/time, etc. of the photo is UNKNOWN but I am still digging. It could very well be - and my guess is - that this is a “Ghosts-of-Girlfriends-Past” photo of two women that were very (ahem) “interested” in the Zinn boys who, in turn, disclaimed the photo, wanting nothing to do with the women.

Various lady spouses could have tried to get rid of the photo on numerous occasions, but it kept re-appearing at different locations in and around the house. The eyes began following other family members on date UNKNOWN, and continuing until the 2018 Spiker Reunion when the picture was finally taken from the house by another spouse of lineal descendant of the Zinns.

If you are able to confirm or disprove any of the information provided, please let me know so I can retract.

ME:  This is hilarious. But I believe there’s more to this story - something about little man Beckett’s opinion on the matter???

MIKE:  Missy, you tell Beckett’s story of the other creepy photos. They have hung in the farm house as long as I can remember but Beckett is the first to get spooked.

MISSY:  Despite all the excitement going on, we were finally able to get Beckett settled enough to take a nap in one of the bedrooms. Shortly after, when we were sitting downstairs, we heard Beckett crying and yelling in a way that was a bit of a drastic measure for him. He kept calling for me, so I jetted up the stairs. Brock, and then Mike (his best farm friend,) quickly followed. When I tried to enter the room, the door was jammed a tiny bit from from some sheets that had fallen off the dresser. I assumed this was what had woken him up but then came the sad, tear-filled face of Beckett yelling that the “scary ladies” kept looking at him!

THESE ladies were not the ones in the “creepy picture” (these had fans) but it scared the crap out of him. LOL. He repeatedly said they were creepy, that they kept looking at him, and that they were scary, so I was “ordered” to remove the pictures off the wall. However, the event was the highlight of his stories for the rest of the day. Every time we’d walk up the steps he’d ask if they were still in there.

We changed bedrooms that evening. Beckett slept a lot more soundly surrounded by moose antlers and animal prints. I guess he feels more at home in there. Haha.

Mike:  I will try to explain some of this. I do not recall where I got the framed photo. I think it was in a box at the farm but I’m not sure. Even if I got it from there, I do not know if they are even related to us. Maybe when/if Brock takes the back off the frame, it will have some identifying information.

After we remodeled the second story of the farm house, I started hanging framed photos that were around. I hung this one at the top of the stairs on the left. When you’d come upstairs and looked to the left, you saw it. If you went to the front bedroom and looked left, you saw it. If you exited that room and looked right, you saw it. If you walked down the hall after leaving either of the other two bedrooms or the bathroom, it was hard to miss and, you saw it. When looking at the photo, some felt the eyes of the subjects followed you even as you walked downstairs.

Fast forward to the 2018 reunion. John Spiker and I were standing at the chicken pit watching my son Drew and nephew Brock “turn chickens.” John inquired about the cardinal picture that was sitting, un-hung, at the top of the stairs. It had been clipped from a magazine and I assume Grandma Gay framed it since I do not remember it being in the farm house. John asked me if I would consider putting it into the auction (he collects cardinal photos, etc.) I agreed.

Drew chimed in, “Will you also put that picture of the two ladies at the top of the stairs into the auction? I see those eyes every time I am in the hall and want to go downstairs. It’s spooky.”

Brock agreed with Drew’s assessment. I said okay, but then forgot about it. During the auction, however, Drew went upstairs, removed the picture from the wall, and put it on the auction table. When John raised it up to sell, he asked for the story behind the photo. I told a shorter version of this but mentioned the eyes seemed to follow you and that I didn’t know who they were, etc. The unusual frame is valuable. But…after my story of “spooky eyes,” no-one would even bid a dollar!!! 

So John had to add in a bag of pretzels as an encouragement (they were selling around $10) and I said, “Whoever buys pretzels must take the picture.” In other words, get two for one. And that’s how John sold it. Brock was the ONLY bidder. Missy did not give her approval, but bidding was over, soooo now both the pretzels and the picture reside in Jackson County, WV with Brock, Missy and Beckett.

THE END.

(Or maybe not. Check back next month when we reveal the identities of the women in the Creepy Picture.)

Announcements

• Submitted by Haley Conley Cloughessy – Winners of the Reunion Fishing Tournament are:

Biggest - Logan Thrush and Slate Swiger
Smallest - Gracie Spiker and Beckett Stotts
Most Caught - Sawyer Swiger caught 5 fish

• Submitted by: Bobbi Spiker Conley  – This year was Ken and Kathy Zinn’s first time attending the Spiker Family Reunion. We hope they’ll join us again next year but in the interim, here is a story that Ken submitted for our Library collection titled, “Only in West Virginia.” 

• Submitted by: Bobbi Spiker Conley  – At the reunion, the eldest cousins gathered to recreate a childhood photo from 1954. Paula Nolan shared these great pics with us.

Pictured L to R: Mark, Melinda, Mike, Paula, Cathy, Brada, John