Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Work and Tea Time

Monday I was chosen to be one to get up bright and early and go to our showroom in High Point to count inventory. Two of us went and two of the ladies at the showroom worked with us. In speaking with the one  who manages the showroom,  I have suggested that  we have a ladies tea at the showroom.  Things are always either too busy at the plant or a market going on at the showroom and the tea has only been dreamed about. The 60ish, proper, very strong Southern drawl manager is a delight. So when I learned I was to be there on Monday I thought I should prepare a tea time treat even if we didn't get to have a full tea.

So I baked some blueberry pecan bread, placed it in a basket along with some tea bags. I didn't tell her I was bringing it. To my surprise when I got there and presented it to her she said she had brought in one of her special tea cups for me to use that day.

We didn't get to use it till later in the afternoon. She had been experiencing throat problems, so while the other   girls were busy at another building counting, we sneaked and had our tea.She really wanted me to use her cup so I did. It was a beautiful blue cup that sat on a teapot. Her daughter, who lives in Belgium had bought it for her in Poland. I wish I had taken a picture of it, at least with my cell phone camera.

The tea and bread were enjoyed and then we continued on clearing up inventory problems. It wasn't long until the other girls came back. We tried to fool them into thinking we had been busy working the whole time they were gone.  But they suspected that we had had our tea and we confessed we had.

The surprise tea was a nice addition to a hard working day. And we all get to enjoy lunch together  at the Grateful Bread with scrumptious home made soup, and a 3 cheese grilled sandwich on their famous "bird seed bread".

I am thankful for the blessings God gave me on a day that I was very tempted to dread and for keeping us safe on the long drive home.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Tales of Another Generation, Part I

My mother wrote some family history when she was alive. I thought I would share a little of the tales of another generation.

"It all started when my niece was born in 1931 in a small town in Ohio. I went to stay to help with the baby. There were a few houses on one side of the gravel road. Other children lived around, including a boy staying with his siblings and parents in his grandmother's house.

In the evening the kids would be out playing hide and seek, kick the bucket, etc. One evening we were playing hide and seek and I put ice down that boys neck.  He said that was the start of us getting together.

I wasn't helping with the baby very long but we would come back to visit and the kids in the neighborhood would all play together. When Daddy and Mother moved to a different house, that boy would visit me there.

He worked in a different town and would have to catch the trolley on a Friday night and catch it again to go back on Sunday night.One Sunday night he was leaving our house, ran down the alley, turned the corner and ran into a lady and knocked her down. He said he didn't even stop and help her. He would have missed the trolley if he had.

School was out and I was helping someone with some house cleaning. Well, D (that boy I used to play with) asked my brother if he could borrow his car. D wanted us to go the next state and get married. We talked to some friends and they told us where to go and where the minister lived who married them. My brother let him have the car, a little red convertible with donut tires. He came to where I was cleaning and got me and we were on our way. Nobody knew we were going but my brother.

We found the ministers house. His wife and some one else were the witnesses. We drove back to Ohio. I don't remember stopping to eat anywhere. He was 22 and I was 16.

When we got back we didn't get the best welcome.  Mother and Daddy didn't think much of some of his family, so that didn't go so well with me marrying into it.

My sister fixed a nice meal and gave me some dishes from her cupboard. D's dad told him not to bring me to his house to keep. Some of Mother and Daddy's friends gave us a shower.

D's aunt said he could bring me down there.  We fixed a kitchen on her enclosed back porch.  We bought a table, 4 chairs, a utility cupboard and a cabinet for a 2 burner hot plate. We used the bedroom D had slept in there. We lived there till October. The back porch wasn't heated so we had to move.  We walked and walked but didn't find anything suitable for the money we could afford. So my brother let us move in his 2 rooms upstairs. There was no water and no bathroom upstairs. They didn't have a bathroom downstairs either. It was a path out the back door."

February Morning

Rick is hosting a Bibles study this morning with breakfast. He had asked me the other day if I would fix my sausage gravy before I went to work. I gladly accepted. So I have been up early this morning, actually before the alarm went off. The gravy making went off well. Two skillets of Bob Evans sausage gravy. Home made of course! I love using Bob Evans sausage and don't like to substitute any other. It contains no grease.

Well, the gravy is now in the crock pot and I am ready to eat a biscuit myself, the cook's privilege. I took a picture of the gravy but it did not turn out. Rick teased me and said "Oh no, now she's taking a picture of gravy." He said he loved my mom's gravy but never wanted to take a picture of it (He loves mine, too.) But I said my family will look at this picture of gravy after I'm gone and wish they had some! :)