The sign greeting attendees to the family reunion purposefully read, “Welcome to the Mussatto Family FOOLSBALL Tournament,” with the “L” crossed out; I immediately felt that this was my kind of family. The Mussatto family holds a reunion annually where they make “secret recipe” burgoo and hang out for most all of day. At their first burgoo reunion on November 21, 2010, the family members were presented with sweatshirts to commemorate the event, with the idea that each following burgoo reunion’s dates would be stitched on to the sweatshirt. There was just one holdup. The sweatshirts had a typo. But, what did the Mussatto family do? They ran with it, of course! The prized sweatshirt forever reads, “1st Annual Mussatto BuTgoo.” Somehow, this feels perfectly appropriate for this fun family. 
Four stitched dates on the sweatshirts later, the Mussatto family has added a new twist to their reunion celebrations. This year they went bigger – way bigger, as in creating a human-sized foosball table. I wondered if this particular family just happens to have an affinity for foosball. What on earth possessed them? It turns out that Mike Mussatto, a brother in the family, had seen something on the internet about the idea and decided to create his own design. Mike Mussatto says he thought to himself upon seeing it, “Wouldn’t that be neat!” And so he just ran with it. In two days, it was built. Done. He set the posts one day and finished it the next. He even added last-minute coozies, installed on the posts for the players to use for quenching thirst during an exhilarating game between the family members.
Three generations were present at this special Mussatto family reunion and “butgoo” held out on Concord-Arenzville Road. Family from Pennsylvania even flew in for the occasion. Mike Mussatto starts the fire for the cooking of the secret recipe burgoo about 4 a.m. the day of the reunion, adding that the recipe is “a Mussatto thing.” While I may have overheard *the* secret ingredient, I honor their fun family festivities by holding my tongue on that covert cooking component. It was guesstimated that about 30 gallons of burgoo were made (which will NOT all get eaten that day…don’t fret); the family even sent me home with my own vessel of said secret soup. So, it was a day of foosball for adults and kids alike in the life-size foosball game, holding fast to rotating foam rods that were secured in horizontal position across the man-made game “table.” The family started back in 2010 with the Annual Mussatto Butgoo after losing their dad, Thomas Louis Mussatto; it was a day to remember him and celebrate him. Susan Mussatto Prosser smiled and said, “He would have loved this.”
