Tea and Toast

I can't say for sure if my grandfather is drinking tea or coffee in this picture but if I had to choose I'd say it is probably tea because tea and toast is what my grandparents and some of the other adults enjoyed during the day when possible-or in the evening or in the case of one particular aunt, as supper. My grandmother not only drank the tea, she read the tea leaves and when the reading involved me-she was always right on. A few times I wish I would have listened to her!

I remember it was green tea that they drank-Salada green tea I think or maybe it was Lipton. Of course tea choices were limited back then. There were no fancy flavorings or endless variations of tea. Tea was tea-kind of like coffee was coffee. I never acquired a taste for tea. I tried but even with the amount of sugar I'd add it still tasted like tea! The thought of dunking a much anticipated piece of toast into a drink I did not like-toast made from a toaster where you'd pull down both sides and lay a piece of bread in place in each and then put the sides back up-and then wait and most usually I'd burn the bread and have to scrape the burnt part off in the sink-was not something I wanted to waste my toast on even if it was burnt and half-scraped off. Actually the half-burnt toast tasted pretty good with extra butter.

The one thing I did like when trying to drink the tea was the cup and saucer in which the tea was served. Something tells me those cups and saucers came from inside an Oatmeal box because I remember my grandmother reaching inside the box to see what was waiting for her. The cups and saucers were never packaged or protected. They just sat in wait amongst the oat flakes. I bet my grandmother felt the same anticipation we experienced when we'd dig inside our Cracker Jack boxes.

My grandmother did have fine, bone china cups and saucers kept in the dining room in her china cupboard but they were for good. They were antiques. We had our favorites. Mine was a matching set with clovers all over them. Lucky for me, that set now sits in my cupboard. I've used it a few times-but not for tea!

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