MEMOIR | MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS | CHILDHOOD

Tea With Granny

A child’s recollection

Photo by Haley Parson on Unsplash

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The little china cup and saucer sit silent and dusty in back of my china cupboard. Black kittens adorn the plain white china. Once filled with rich hot chocolate or, at our “grown-up girls” sessions when we’d gather round Grandma’s table, filled with Cambric tea. More cream and sugar that real tea, but the antique lace cloth and china tea plates made it special.

Little girls and their grandmothers. Playing at fine ladies. Well, we were playing, she was always a fine lady, to us.

When Granny served tea, we sat around the big table in the dining room, with proper Sunday manners. We sipped our tea graciously and did not clink the silver spoon too loudly against the china cup. And we never asked for more than the three lumps of sugar doled out before Granny poured in the tea. We’d argue about whose turn it was to use the little China cup. But never too loud nor long for fear of being banished from the tea party — for being unlady-like.

To have tea with Granny was to absorb the adult ritual of graceful conversation. Lively chatter to be sure. Happy children describing their days, what happened at play school. All remarked upon as if the gravest and most mature of topics. All enjoyed with fellowship and home-baked cookies. And the quiet clink of spoon on China cup.

My children are all grown and gone now. And anyway, boys don’t play at fine ladies. Nor bring their dollies and teddies to tea. All lined up on pint-size, pastel chairs, low enough for tiny legs. Nor eat pretend dainties. Not for them the pint-sized substitute for grown-up life. So the little cup was put away.

And, now it sits, disused, shoulder to shoulder with handed down beauties from Mother and Grandmother. All but forgotten in the back row. But when I notice it there, I remember.

Thanks to Elle Becker and her writing class **From Idea to Edit **for the prompt which inspired this and for her invaluable feedback

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