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High Tea at the Forresters
Every year about this time, my wife Marie and a friend host a “high tea” at our house for about 20 ladies, usually a mix of Americans and Japanese.
Man, it’s posh! The Pump Room in Bath, England, the site of many a high tea in Regency novels, has nothing on Marie’s teas. (The photo below, taken before the piles of delicacies were put on the tables, doesn’t really do the scene justice.)
Marie and Toshimi, the co-hosts, spent days in the kitchen preparing for the tea, making scones (of course), pavlova (a layered meringue-based dessert), grapefruit Jello (Japanese love Jello), finger sandwiches, quiche, egg mousses on tiny toasts, key lime parfaits in little shot glasses, and three or four kinds of tea. Marie brings out her finest china, silverware, and teacups. All the ladies wear skirts or dresses. As I said, it’s posh. Here are Marie and Toshimi.
The guests are asked to donate 20 bucks, money that goes toward the scholarship of an older woman returning to college. Some of the women give more.
For my contribution to the festivities (Marie’s been doing these for six years), I always give away one of my jigsaw puzzles to the best beans-in-a-bottle guesser. I call the puzzle you see below “Four Puzzles in a Bento Box.” Those animals you see are pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to their right.
Bob the dog and I stay out of the way during the affair. While it’s going on, we take a long walk and then hang around outside on our deck, where I drink coffee and do my crossword puzzles. I drop in occasionally to refill my coffee. I don’t stay long. The cacophony of 20 women all talking at once drives me back to the deck with Bob. A high tea is no place for a man or a beast.
Here’s one of the numerous flower arrangements that Marie scattered about the place. I made the structure for this fool-the-eye illusion. Marie grew and arranged the flowers.
As I looked about Marie’s tea this year — with its fancy flower arrangements, scones topped with clotted cream, elaborate table settings, women in dresses, and five kinds of tea — I thought that a high tea might very well be the apex that 5,000 years of civilization have been moving toward. At the least, we’ve come a long way from luncheons where half-naked men squatted around an open fire, their eyes darting suspiciously at their fellow diners, while they silently gnawed on a wildebeest — and all without a single scone or a cuppa to brighten their existence.
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Yeah. Damned Brits. Standing up to Hitler for all that time, while they waited for reinforcements from across the pond . . .
High tea may include a “light meal.” Sandwiches, etc. Perhaps even (ugh) jello (otherwise known as “jelly” and included in such delicacies as “Knickerbocker Glory“–you might want to suggest that Marie add that to her arsenal).
My great grandmother (born in 1869) had no difficulty referring to the “meal” that occurred between 4 and 5 PM as “high tea.” So I don’t, either.
They are, as I had so much fun on this trip, my only trip ever to the UK. I was traveling with a gentleman friend, from Australia. Between the two of us we got a lot of attention. Because of my hearing I’m a little on the shy side, but my Aussie friend was a delight. He even let the Verger of St. Mary’s of Redford wear his Aussie hat for a time at “The Ship” in Redcliffe, our favorite pub.
The Brits were so polite, but finally one Inn owner, in Warwick, The Old Rectory, ask us how it was that an Aussie and an American were traveling together. I told him I wanted my own “Crocodile Dundee,” so snatched him from his plane as he flew over.
I thought it was a brand of whiskey. Or possibly whisky.
The whisky was named for the ship. The ship was named for what sailor’s would like to see the girls wearing.
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I suppose High Tea has entirely different connotation in Colorado.
And several other states these days.
Mr. On, we didn’t. But we’ve always been amazed by the complexity of a typical Japanese meal. Even casual meals sometimes run to 10 to 15 small dishes. The amount of preparation looks terribly burdensome.
A few decades ago, the Westin Hotel chain was owned by a Japanese company. After they bought out the locally owned landmark, the William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, many of the natives were quite exercised at the incursion (Remember Pearl Harbor!). My mother-in-law was one of them.
However, they’d occasionally have weekend teas, where they’d do the full Japanese tea ceremony, and occasionally we’d go. She loved it. It didn’t quite take the sting of the whole thing out for this feisty “greatest generation” lady, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.
What lucky guests to attend that gorgeous event!! Loved the extras – your teacup flower display and the puzzle raffle! The food list, not to mention the china, etc. were fantastic, plus helping someone in the process?! Having teas for any reason should make a comeback after reading this story! It was wonderful, even without a picture of Bob…..
Thanks, Ms. Cat. My wife enjoys all the preparation, and she gets a lot of satisfaction from “staging” the tea. Besides, the ladies (the Japanese in particular) give her so many compliments that she glows for days.
She, I find it amazing how quickly the two sides of WWII got over it. We visited the Nagasaki museum a couple of years ago, and the displays are remarkably free of political venom. One of our bombs was off target and wiped out a Catholic school. The museum contains a single photo of the mangled little bodies — but that’s about it. For me that was enough. Those little destroyed bodies, in their Catholic outfits, were heart rending.
We also forgave the Japanese much more quickly than I thought we would. Your mother-in-law’s experience is typical, I think, of how we moved on after the war.
I never had the interest in trying one, but when I traveled around Britain a lot in the 1970’s and 1980’s, long distance cross country walks were a popular way for Brits to vacation. There were established paths that generally did not follow the automobile roads. When staying in B&B’s in various small towns some of our fellow guests often were walkers.
Ms. Tabby, we always stay in B & B’s when we hike, in England or Japan. And you’re right. There are walking paths throughout England. It’s a pleasant walking country.
POSH – port outward starboard home
Huh?
Glad I’m not the only one.
According to Merriam-Webster, this is one of the “enduring myths of English etymology.” It was supposed to indicate the best staterooms on trips between Britain and India. But seemingly, the origins are from the British military.
I just about tried to eat the picture off the computer!!!
Yeah. Speak for yourself. I’m still not over the Norman Conquest.
She, you should be grateful. Those Frenchified Normans helped civilize your ancestors, the barbaric Saxons who tried to stand up against the firepower of William’s archers.
😜