VIDEO: One Big, Happy Family

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Across the nation, travelers are seeing the lowest that gas prices have been all year.

It could not come at a more perfect time, as about 45 million Americans will be travelling this weekend for the Fourth of July.

This affects a Columbus family and their upcoming family reunion.

Jones Restaurant has been here for over 60 years.

The Jones family has been here even longer.

They are set to host their 40th annual family reunion on Saturday, and with this decrease in gas prices and hotel rates many more opportunities can open up for this weekend.

The Jones family has been feeding large numbers of people for decades.

This weekend, they’ll only be feeding family members, one-hundred and thirty-six of them.

Over the years, this has become an important event in this family.

“It means a great thing because the younger kids learn their siblings; they learn their relatives. There’s so many families that go around and they don’t know their own people. When you have a gathering like this, it brings the families together,” said Freddie Jones, President of the Jones Family Reunion.

It started with humble beginnings, and now that the nine Jones siblings are grown with kids of their own, the reunion has expanded dramatically.

“We got a little bit more sophisticated from the backyard to having the banquets and travelling to different states. Like my brother said, before we used to go from Columbus to St. Louis and then we’d move on to Chicago,” said Connie Jones Brooks, Jones Family Reunion coordinator.

At times, struggles made the reunion the only option for a getaway.

“This was our way of having a vacation. At one time that was the only thing that we could do was come home, and if we made it home, you didn’t have to worry about anything. That was a really big plus,” said Laura Chalmers, Jones Family Reunion secretary.

With gas being the lowest average it’s been this year, families like the Jones can can make the trip with ease.

“It gives you the opportunity to travel at a cheaper rate, and it enhances the family reunion. People can travel, you know, with the gas being lower,” said Freddie Jones.

As part of the Jones tradition, even if finances are an issue, the host family reaches out to those who need the help.

“We sponsor. We pay for. That’s how it was years ago when we first started out. If you could get here, you didn’t have to worry about anything to eat, and we also assist people who need it, hardship cases we recognize,” said Chalmers.

All of these factors coming together ensures that reunion number 40 can happen, with this year’s theme “Still Standing Strong.”

The Jones have a full weekend ahead of them, full of cookouts, horseback riding, bowling, and touring the city of Columbus.