Clan of the Cave Bear
In 1980, Jean M.Auel wrote the first of her Earth’s Children series called Clan of the Cave Bear. This was a very popular book that chronicled the mixing of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man in a very graphic, if somewhat speculated fictional, way. It was a fascinating read to me in my young adult days (I was the age of my youngest son Thomas when I read it) and I have sworn to myself many times that I would reread the book some day. I think that day has finally come and it is promulgated by this gathering of clans that I am in the midst of here in Utah. To begin with, Utah is as close to being my vision of a primordial place as I can imagine. That is in no way derogatory about the place, but quite the opposite. It is a place that appeals to my sense of well-being in that it hits all the primal chords of my soul. There are the red rocks all around that have a prehistoric feel to just look at. There are the vast open prairies with sage brush as far as the eye can see (this year is a particularly prolific sage year due to the extra rain that has been had by the entirety of the West). And there are forests primeval in every direction. If I needed encouragement to think that this is the perfect setting for the Clan of the Cave Bear, I am reminded that in a few days we will go to see Pando, the oldest and largest living thing in the world. Pando is the 141 acre stand of aspen trees up at Fishlake (about 30 miles from here) that are all connected by their root structure, which means that they communicate in a manner with one another through their neural network with the help of their brethren fungi. Pando was supposedly born at the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago, which works perfectly (give or take a millennia) with the convergence of the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon crowds.
In the novel, there are all the usual family suspects ranging from the insensitive and stubborn Brun to the magical and kind Iza and the mystical and spooky Creb. The book revolves around the protagonist, a young orphaned girl coming into womanhood, named Ayla, who happens to be the Cro-Magnon Deus Ex Machina of the genetic merger. You can imagine the goings on between a young blonde woman and a bunch of cave men with barely any social grace. Strangely enough, the men of the clan, not being used to the more comely nature of Cro-Magnon women, find Ayla rather unattractive. But as is often said in locker-room guy talk, I’m sure they had had worse. Such was the Neanderthal way.
This story is all about day one of the Clan of the Hilltop, which I am calling my family. For consistency of storytelling, let’s call Kim’s family the Neanderthals. That is of course just a literary mechanisms and has nothing to do with the size, height, pre-frontal brow or amount of visible body hair of Kim’s family member, but then again, it might. We are gathered here with about 40 combined family members and an added seven or eight non-family members that are hearty souls willing to join in on the gathering. The clans gathered yesterday evening for the initial get-reacquainted session. Pete, Susie and Kate offered up an array of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and we hauled ourselves off early to the Chuckwagon for sodas and bags and bags of ice to help accommodate the two large coolers that held some of the wine, beer and soda. Let’s start by admitting that this is a hard-drinking crowd (especially the Neanderthals) and did I mention that this is Utah, the state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons) who find that coffee and alcohol are not on the list of offerings for human consumption. That all meant that we had to instruct everyone to carry-in all that they intended to imbibe. Knowing this group as I feel I do, someone was bound to forget to purchase and carry in or even perhaps to purchase light and just enjoy the communal beverage pool.
On my side we have one sister and her husband (Kathy & Bennett), their two children (Alex married to Natalie, and Stephanie “married” to Ben), their respective two children each (Charlie and Jack, and Milla and Rhys, respectively), my other sister’s kids, Jason & Nicki with daughter Katie, and Nichole & Domenic with their kids Parker, Ethan and Jackson, my cousin (first cousin, once removed) Pete & Nancy, son Roger & Valene, daughter Carolyn & John with their two, Charlotte and Evelyn, and last, but not least, youngest son Tom. That makes the Clan of the Hilltop 28 strong. Kim’s Neanderthal Clan has sister Sharon & Woo and their two sons Josh & Haj with kids JJ and Leila and Washley (which is actually Will & Ashley) as well as brother Jeff & Lisa. That makes Kim’s Clan 11 strong. The other eight stack up as family friends and include Susie & Pete with daughter Kate, who, being Wabashers count as Kim’s Clan, and David, who also counts as Kim’s long-time theater clan member. On my side of the ledger are Frank & Lydia and Deb & Melissa. That makes the total for the two sides as 32 for Clan Hilltop and 15 for Clan Neanderthal. As they used to say in the American Indian Wars, we all figured that made it about even.
In the book, every year or two, messengers would circulate between the various far-flung clans and agree on a place for a summer gathering where they could share information and best practices. It was also a time to take pride in one’s accomplishments, especially newly born or wed clan members as well as to mourn the passing on older or less fortunate clan members that were no longer with them. This clan gathering had a similar arc. The last time Kim and I were here at the Lodge at Red River Ranch, two summers ago, we were talking about how much we loved the Lodge and how fond we were of the owners, Charlene and Dave. Kim came up with the idea of having a clan gathering here last summer. We agreed I would lay the offer on the table for her family one day at a mini-gathering. I had already asked my clan members and there was generally unanimity that it sounded great. But Kim’s Clan was somewhat more skeptical at first. They were less convinced that the venue was suitable and poured what we call in the clan gathering business, cold water on the idea. Somewhere along the way, that cold water warmed and dried and they came around to thinking it was a good clan gathering venue. I imagine every clan since the time of Ayla and the Clan Cave Bear has had similar issues with which to contend. Not to worry, its just the way clans operate. Clans love to gather, but remain slightly skeptical of the motivations of the other clans with whom they gather. Clans are a delicate business, just like families are delicate business. This is still early days in the Lodge at Red River Ranch Clan Gathering, but so far, Clan of the Cave Bear is off to a good start even though we already have one soldier down due to a nighttime slip and fall accident. Nothing an ace bandage or two or three can’t solve.