The Gatlinburg Garden Club Annual Tea

Back during Christmas we had a couple ladies ask us if we would host the 2008 Gatlinburg Garden Club Annual Tea at the house. Well, it's hard to say no to a group of senior ladies with those big smiles. SO, the date was set, which is May 1 of every year. The gardener was going nuts the last couple of weeks as the weather would get nice and warm only to have a cold front roll by and drop the temp to around 33 degrees. New flower beds were added, two water fountains, and 60 trays of annuals. Meanwhile, inside the house, I even had to get into the act washing windows, dusting and hiding stuff......:)

They were suppose to come beginning around 12 and the "TEA" got on the road around 2pm to 4pm. Well, they were here when we came back from breakfast, just a couple from the flower committee, then a few from the food committee, then a few from the welcome committee and before 11am the house was under siege. Everyone brought a "dish" of something, lots of dishes of stuff, chocolate covered strawberries, homemade cookies, little tiny sandwiches (it took like 20 of them to get a real sandwiches) but the interesting thing was that the drink was not "TEA" after all. It was pineapple/sprite punch. But what an nice event as around 1:30pm the shuttle started to arrive and off the trolley came women dressed up for Sunday church wearing their best hats.....Kathy spent two hours at the front door as wave after wave of ladies came in.

The best head count was 126 non-committee members visited during the next two hours, touring the house, working past the dining room table and having a glass of ice cold punch and seeing their old time friends and hugging and telling stories. I was amazed at the whole process.

The goldens had to go.....so I took them out the servant entrance so they could run around the front yard, before long they were sitting next to ladies while being rubbed.....ever hear of a golden that didn't like being petted. I heard stories of their pets and I think they stole the show, if fact. Four o'clock came fast and as the ladies got back on board the goldens acted like they wanted to ride along....

The committees cleaned up and by 4:30pm the house was clean as a pin again, all the dishes and cups washed and put away. We did end up with more food then even I can eat in a week.....well we'll see.

The funny part was, after we thought they had all left, we decided to go to the Cracker Barrel for coffee, so my daughter ran around all 5 floors and turned off all the lights and music and checked to see if anyone was in the house before we armed it. No one was in the house, and so as we walked out the door there sat an 78 year ole lady rolling on the porch. Kathy said, "Are you waiting for someone?" "Yes", came the reply. Kathy then told the lady that everyone had left and did she need a ride somewhere? "She left me, well that stinker," pronouced the lady.

So we drove her over to her car and had a smile from her telling us stories about her friends.........

The rest of this month should be interesting as we come closer to the eductional workshops as two more "events" are on the plate before a bunch of traders come to town.....so stay tune.