Tom Tom

Mr. Mettler (whose nickname is Tom Tom) is Drew's grandfather. He and his wife, Sarah (or Sally) split their time between their Palm Beach residence and here, in Cashiers, where they go in the summer when it gets to hot there. They bought this plot back in the 70s after their daughter Beth (Drew's mother) visited here with a friend from school. They've been improving the house ever since.

Drew and his siblings have been coming here since they were little and have lots of funny stories involving crashing the golf cart, their cousins the Cecils (relatives of the Vanderbilt clan) making mischief, hanging out at High Hampton Country Club...But one random story I thought was funny: years ago, when Mr. Mettler was a judge, he had some extra power to exercise which included having a policeman follow his daughter (Drew's aunt) when she would sneak out and go to bars. He also "burned marijuana in his courtroom" (no, he didn't smoke it--just disposed of it making a statement) when "that kind of thing was more acceptable."

Even more impressively, he had a run-in with Donald Trump when Mr. Trump put an absurdly large flag in his front yard that violated a city ordinance. Mr. Mettler was on the town council at the time and had to deal with, what he calls, "one of the biggest egos on this planet." He claimed that Trump knew he wouldn't win the suit and was just doing it for publicity. The case was settled outside of court. Later, Mr. Mettler explained, he got a phonecall from someone who claimed to be Donald Trump. At first, he thought it was his friend who often pretended to be someone else when he'd leave a message with his secretary, one time pretending to be an officer who had a high-profile client of his in a holding cell. So Mr. Mettler comes to the phone, expecting his friend, and says "Hey, how are you, you lecherous bastard?" Mr. Trump was obviously taken aback by this, because it was in fact the real Donald Trump, who had called Mr. Mettler to ask him to be his personal lawyer. Mr. Mettler politely refused.

Mr. Mettler brings wine with him when we go out to eat because Cashiers is a dry county (for a good reason I suppose--I'll post a video soon of how windy and dangerous the roads are). I get to have a glass of wine with every dinner, and last night, he told Mrs. Mettler, "It's Saturday in Cashiers which means you have to have a glass of wine." I hardly have to point out that it was, in fact, Friday.