LaFollette, TN: Family

When I was a child most of my family lived within 20 minutes of each other. There was a time when I was visiting Aunt Joyce’s house and I heard a scary voice coming from behind her couch, but couldn’t see who it belonged to. She explained to me that it was Aunt Tilly, a mean old lady who hated children. I can't remember how long I thought this was true, but over time she would tell me, “no, you can’t go in there, Aunt Tilly is in there” or “you better be good, Aunt Tilly is watching” and things along those lines. Needless to say, I was terrified of this woman that I had never met, and never would meet because she didn’t exist. Aunt Joyce claims that she never knew I really believed in Aunt Tilly.. I don’t know if I believe her. Fast forward about 20 years, I fostered a mastiff mix who was just a unique dog with a creep stare that had a high prey drive. She needed a name and was gifted with ‘Tilly’. Aunt Joyce loved it and the name fit my girl so well. She didn’t last long as a foster dog before she became my forever furbaby. I’ll come back to Aunt Tilly.

R.I.P. Tilly

In the following days more family members began to trickle in. One day Aunt Joyce and I went to town to run errands and when we got back to the clubhouse we were welcomed by the arrival of her brother and his wife. They were kind enough to help us bring stuff into the house, except for one problem. It was locked and no one had the keys. Uncle Glenn was on pick up duty at the airport, but the flight was delayed so he was not coming back any time soon. Aunt Joyce called her husband and they discussed ways to get into the house and voila! She was inside. The four of us caught up and the new arrivals settled in. Then Uncle Glenn came back with two more.. one of my nieces and Mom! My niece had never been to Tennessee before so she and I, followed by Ethel and Neville, walked around the property. There is one particularly steep hill that she wanted to go up, so we did. Not all the way up, but we made it about halfway before she wanted to turn and head back down, convinced that I was trying to kill her with exercise. I reminded her that this hike was her idea as I helped her to the bottom. Since she was the only child stuck with boring adults we made signs for the reunion. We asked for everyone’s help coming up with funny rules for the family; I wrote them out and she drew accompanying photos. Her mom and sister were flying in the next day so she made a sign to hold up at the airport for them. 

I can’t remember how it came up, but I mentioned Aunt Tilly to my niece and of course my rotten family played along. She was asking about the different rooms inside the clubhouse and Aunt Joyce told her the one room she can’t go into, because Aunt Tilly lived in there. As she explained who that was, my niece's eyes got as big as they have ever been. Ah, sweet memories. Around lunchtime the next day everyone made sandwiches. Aunt Joyce made a plate with half of a PB&J and some chips on it, along with a glass of water. I walked into the kitchen and she was just bent over laughing while my niece watched her from the other side of the counter; my aunt said that she had bumped her knee and was laughing it off. What really happened was she started to ask the child to take the plate to Aunt Tilly but my niece's facial expression caused her to crack up. Aunt Joyce then asked me to feed her; I went into the back room, waited a minute then came back out with just the bag of chips. “That old woman is still so angry! She threw the bag of chips at me! She could have just said no.” My niece is brave enough to laugh about this since it didn’t happen to her, so I told her she was going to have to be the one to feed Aunt Tilly dinner. “Oh no I’m not!” Muhahahaha. Shortly after that my niece and I go to pick up her mom and sister. Once we are almost to the airport, my sister (her mom) texts me that their flight is delayed. My niece is obsessed with the disgustingly sweet Butter Beer drink at Starbucks, so we headed there to kill time. We arrive a the airport with time to spare and at first she is shy about holding up the sign she made, but as time passed she got into a goofy mood and became excited, dancing around and holding it up for everyone to see. Finally, the flight landed and she gets to hold the sign up for the right people. My sister Lori was super excited to see me because A) she didn’t know who was picking her up from the airport and B) I’m her favorite. The sunset on the drive back to LaFollette was incredible; Lori loves sunsets and I’m happy she got to enjoy this one. The ride back to Autumn Olive took much longer than expected, but my niece took that chance to fill her mom and sister in on scary Aunt Tilly and Aunt Joyce bumping her knee so hard she laughed. When we did get back to the campsite, four more family members had shown up and gotten a game of beer pong going. Welcome to the reunion! We all played a few games and one of my cousins and I thought it would be fun to take my sister up that steep hill, but after she lost one flip flop she decided no more. She also had it stuck in her head that we were going to leave her stranded in the woods. What kind of family does she think we are?

Sisters

 

There was one more day of family flying in, but two of the three flights were surprises that only my cousin Josh and I knew about. I hung around the house and got to spend some quality time with my favorites. Finally, Josh came back with one family friend and one more cousin, Heather. Aunt Joyce really was surprised to see them and especially happy to show Heather around the property, since she had never been there before. She got the grand tour and the rest of the day to relax. Folks were fishing, hiking, playing some frisbee game, checkin for ticks, and gettin’ down to good music. Heather and I made ourselves a moonshine drink, because when in Tennessee… and it took us hours to finish that one drink. Aunt Joyce made an awesome homemade dinner for the fam; the food was delicious, as always, and it was so much fun having everyone together again. The fireflies are out en force here too, and after dinner the kids tried to catch them while the adults hung out and started a bonfire. Before the night’s over, our last arrival, cousin Linda, comes in. She will be here less than 48 hours, but loves us all enough to have made the trip anyway. I loved watching the Drag Queen get used by people other than me. We hung out in there, three different people napped in it, and it was the spot to chill and listen to music and watch the goin’ ons. It was especially entertaining watching people try to get in the top bunk. But even better than all of that was getting to be with the people I love most. 

Photo credit: Heather