Tomorrow Em & I are headed to Tazewell to pick up my Songbird of a brother, Mark
and then we're going to a "Payne-full" family gathering at Uncle Hubie's in Ivanhoe.
Uncle hosts these AMAZING annual gatherings...starts on Friday - ends on Sunday
Everyone brings tents and camps in the field....there's food, drink, beautiful mountain music, usually a couple of cousins
will pop up that I haven't seen since elementary school years...someone usually gets married!
Uncle and I will ballroom dance in the yard (I'm barefooted) to more than one song.
I Love everything about going to Uncle's...I always look forward to it and I'm always sad if he has to postpone it.
But this year I'm going and I'm sad because my Dad says he's not going.
He says it makes him mad to sit and listen to one of his siblings talk about one of the others and he calls it bullshit.
It's the kind of bullshit that made Grandma feel older than her years and it was probably a relief when she actually got to die and get away from it...
Mark & I talked about it for over an hour last night
We aren't affected by it unless someone aims a sharp tongue directly at us and that's rare because to most of the mean talkers we're still kids to be talked over and that's a blessing.
It makes me sad when old people hold on to grudges and can't or don't appreciate the good parts of everything that's around them....
Mark will play the guitar and I will start to sing and someone will say
"They could have been somebody...they could have done something with that talent..."
Well in the spirit of my feisty old Grandma...I'm here...I'm somebody...and I'm doing it now!