Every week, I share something from my past with my grandsons.
My sweet boys, your Pop Pop and I traveled to Gatlinburg a couple of weeks ago just to get out of town for a little while. Carter, you’ve been there with me but what you don’t know is I’ve been going to Gatlinburg since I was a baby!
Your great-grandparents would take us to the mountains two or three times each summer but what made it fun was that all my aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents (your great-great-grandparents!) would go with us. Our entire family would fill up the top floor of the Whalley Motel right across the street from the Candy Kitchen. The motel had a huge pool (of course, I was just a kid so every pool looked huge to me!) and a big oak tree out front where all the adults sat during the day. It was fun spending time with my cousins just playing around in the pool all day.
The big treat for me was when Granddaddy would slip me five dollars to do whatever I wanted to do with it. I know five dollars isn’t a big deal now, but back then, it went a long way! I wasn’t much into the touristy stuff so I’d usually head down to the drugstore and buy a book or when I got older, makeup.
Another fun thing we would do is the family in its entirety would have either lunch or dinner at Shoney’s. Shoney’s isn’t that great now, but back then, it was awesome! It was the only time I ever got fish and chips, and it was awesome! Their strawberry pie with homemade whipped cream was the best though.
I also was penpals with Mr. Whalley’s granddaughter, Renee. He would always plan for her to be at the motel when he knew we were coming so Renee and I could get together. We sent letters to each other for years but as we grew up, it kind of dwindled out.
I’ll share more memories of our trips to Gatlinburg later.
I love you both to the ends of the universe and back!
Nana
