On this last Sunday, Carol and I had a pleasant time sitting with Addie and Ed and Lizzie and Larry and Janet and Olivia trying to figure out who had attended the Tingle Family Reunion on Saturday, June 21. We believe close to sixty persons in some way related to Tingles, either by blood or law, attended and if that is the case, as based on Aunt Addie’s records, this may have been the best attended Tingle Family Reunion of all time, or at least the best attended in the last three years, since it has been the only one during that time.
Carol took this picture of me on the right sitting next to Jane Wallace and her husband. I took the school bus with Jane down to the Ford School. She still lives in her old family place on Cow Lane right off 221 North. I am holding a copy of the little pamphlet Jane had of a reunion of my classmates at Ford. I was surprised I was able to identify myself in my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade class pictures, though that was made easier somewhat by my wearing the same t-shirt in two of the class pictures.
I did not take good pictures. I do not know the name of the person in the foreground right. Standing, with that silver grey hair, is Rusty, and seated in the red shirt is Sam Tingle and next to him standing–well, that could be his daughter Samantha.
That’s Cousin Janet on the very far right seated. With Uncle Ed right behind. Way off at the very end of the table where Janet is seated is her husband Bobo Walston. We had a good talk with him as we closed up the place after the day’s festivities.
That’s Butch Dean, husband of Lucy Tingle Dean , in the red shirt. Next to him is Larry Williamson, Lizzie’s husband. She is seated with her back to us. They live up in North Carolina and had a pretty long drive down to Ora.
Here are people getting deserts. There were a lot of those. That’s Aunt Doris bending over a pie and that’s the back of Aunt Addie. I took terrible pictures.
That’s Cousin Lizzie, Elizabeth, standing. And Cousin Rusty with the red cup in his hand. He has a pony tail, not visible here. And has worked the night shift in a Greenville Post Office for years and years. That’s the back of Uncle Carl to the right. He has had to leave his home on 221 North, and now lives in an old person’s home. The home was formerly the Lauren’s Hospital, where Brother Steve was born.
Here Carol chats with Cathy Corbett and across the table Beth Corbett with whom we had dinner later in the week. Cathy drove clear up from Aikin.
Everyone is eating. That’s Bobo standing in the middle, and up front you can see Rusty’s pony tail.
Four Generations in this picture. Aunt Doris on the far right, mother of Lucy Dean, on the far left and Sam Tingle, in the middle back. Samantha, daughter of Sam, with her child, Bree. Brother Dave notes in a blog comment, as did a number of people at the reunion, how much Sam Tingle and my brother, Dan, look alike.
Three is a charm, they say. The reunion marks the third time in three years that Carol and I have traveled back to Ora, SC. The first was to bury W.B. in June of 2006, the second to bury Joan in June of 2007. The reunion puts a period to our travels back there and rounds them out in a positive way. I was able to develop further relations with family that had begun over the previous two years and start, however tentatively, to develop relations with people I had not met before or had not seen for fifty years.
If others in attendance that day have pictures in digital format send them along and I would be happy to post them in this entry. Also if I have made mistakes in identifying people, please correct me. I can make changes.
Do you have any better shots of Sam Tingle? He sure looks like Dan, from a distance.
I wish we could have been there. We enjoyed the pictures.
Great job Nick, our family reads your blog often.