Morning Tea Thoughts

My first morning tea with the Chesapeake Collection was one filled with musings of days gone by. I sat there, sipping my tea in my almost see through Havilland tea cup that is chipped on one side a bit but so well loved as its so very delicate and each time I drink from it, it feels as though stories of a by-gone era come flooding to its surface, filling me with nostalgia for my own history.
One sip from this tea cup and you feel transported back in time. No other tea cup of mine does this to me. With a bit of a selfish heart I keep this cup just for my use and do not share it. It has no old family sentimental value, it was found for $1.00 at Goodwill. But still its dear to me. When you take your last sip, you can see the words Havilland and France written on the underside, the china paper thin.
Emery is off at work so the house is mine alone. The CD my dear friend Nancy gave me called "Afternoon Tea" is playing, setting the most perfect mood.
The gold's and rich deep red tones of the new furniture give me a feeling that a new phase has truly begun in my life. So different from the years of blue furniture.
This little tea cup, has a very small handle, too small for my fingers to fit through so one holds the handle dearly, almost tenderly between two fingers. It feels so feminine, so old fashioned. It makes you behave properly !
Many years ago as a child I thought if I heard the phrase one more time " well, its the proper way" I would scream.
My sisters and I were raised with a very strict code of behavior. As a child it felt a bit stifling. Each night my hair was curled in rags for the next school day. I remember hiding under the table in hopes my grandmother would forget about me, but no, soon enough I saw that big comb and the cup of water she used to damper my hair before they were wound in rags. I also had to wear ribbons in this out of date hair style. Silk ankle socks of every imaginable color were worn with my always polished shoes. We had to get these socks in some special "children's store". To be sure I was the darling of every old lady, dressed like they were as children or how they dressed their children. My sister Janine and I went to tea parties on the lawns of colonial homes, sipping punch and eating dainty little petit fours. Gloves on our hands and impeccable manners. We often walked to these events sans our mother and felt quite grown up strolling through town.
This morning, feeling so proper with my little tea cup, my toast cut into small sticks, my mind wandered to visits with my great grandmother, Alberta Jane Hines Neil. Proper does not even begin to describe this woman !
My family has this real thing with Candy dishes. My Aunt and I laugh at the amount we each have. A trait passed down from my great grandmother, who always beautiful candy dishes filled with things like salted peanuts, m&m's and some kind of mints. They sat on her coffee table at all times. Then she had a tiny dresser or something like that in her living room with the bottom drawer always packed with bags of candy and sticks of bubble gum, (they were always brittle though)
I remember sitting by all that candy on the table, watching it, thinking how badly I wanted some, wishing I could ask for some, wishing I could just DIG in, but no, every time we went to visit, I must wait to hear these words, " children you may have some candy" and I would quickly look at my mother, waiting for her nod, meaning "yes, you may have some", which also meant, "some and not all". A carefully picked small group of m&m's with hopes you would be told to take a few more.
At times I feel like I grew up 100 years ago, so many rules and such careful training. At times I hated it as a child, but now I see nothing but value in the way we were raised. There are no situations in public that cause me wonder what I should be doing. Not many questions on etiquette arise for me. They were drilled into my head as a child.
My other great grandmother died 20 years or so before I was born, but she too was a stickler for manners and things being done the proper way.
These woman have had a powerful influence on me to this day. A legacy of propriety passed down one more generation to my own daughters.

Morning Tea

Me, age 7... Winter time, black velvet dress, fur collar, hat and muff to match

My great grandmother Emma Sophia Lutes Heckbert

My other great grandmother (Nana Neil) Alberta Jane Hines Neil on the left, my grandmother in the middle and a friend of my Nana's on the right. My grandmother was dressed up for some club or group she belonged to, the year 1919. If you could see it clearly, her hair done in long curls, just like she did for me until I was in the 5th grade.