Well, this is different….I wanted iced tea and I wanted it right away, and it had to be sweet tea because I was trying to create a real Southern meal such as would be served after a funeral.
Food is of utmost importance at Southern funerals. Now, there wasn’t a funeral but there was a burial as I finally got around to burying my eldest brother who was old enough to be my dad and who died in 1984. My daughters and I had to find his box and dig it up when my mother’s property was sold after her death, which wasn’t easy because Dad never told us EXACTLY where he had buried the ashes. I wasn’t even sure they were in a box, but thankfully, they were. (Are you horrified? Or amused? Bet you’re wishing you coulda been there!)
SO – I promised the kids real fried chicken and fixins’ because I don’t fry ANYTHING EVER but that is what you eat after a burial. By the time we got home from the cemetary and buying the food we were so hungry! I couldn’t wait long enough to brew a pot of tea, but I had a pot of Keemun Mao Feng left over from yesterday. I heated it a bit in the microwave, added a little sugar and poured it over ice! Ta-dah! The best iced tea I have ever had, I think. It had a lovely rich edge that grocery store bags just don’t give you – a little something extra in the flavor profile. Bravo, Keemun Mao Feng! Rest in peace, big brother. I hope he heard us playing the 50’s and 60’s stations on satellite radio in his honor today!
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
Neither horrified nor amused—-it just made me smile!
That sounds like a good cup of tea!!!
Rest in peace :) I’m glad they were ashes, and not a skeleton, but I would have understood even if it were a skeleton :) :) :)
There is something about funerals and burials that bring out the absurd. I guess because death is so scary. It was so horrible at the time, but my grandmother threw herself in her sister’s grave at the cemetery, and also we had a closed casket for my grandfather, but somehow she summoned super human strength and ran out of the pew and OPENED HIS CASKET in the church to say goodbye! We laugh about it now but I thought I was going to faint both times!!!
What a day! Glad you found him(!) and may he rest in peace. Yay for a good cup of tea to end the day.
@Jacqueline – I’m actually laughing out loud. I would love your grandmother!
Uniquity – she has passed on – and had a PINK coffin!!!!
Good for her! : )
I’ve already asked friends and family to skip a funeral and just hold a memorial tea party.
gmathis – What a great idea!
Jacqueline – I LOVE the pink coffin! I had a neighbor who was like a grandmother to me and she loved pink. She had a pink house, pink chair, pink washer and dryer, pink stove and oven. She taught me to garden. After she died I bought Lady Carlyle china because the pink floral pattern reminded me of her and in warm months, that is what we use for every tea party. (In cold months we use Old Country Roses, and year ’round we sometimes use Spode Blue Room pieces for a change.)
This is so a month ago, but I found your story so touching. Traditions and ceremony are so comforting in times of tragedy. I guess it’s our waybof controlling what we can. My great-grandmother was very eccentric, (because she was wealthy otherwise she’d be called just plain nuts), and she had a horse that she adored and kept on her property. Her driver/ horse caretaker Mr. Cissin was tasked with bringing the horse to her funeral as per her specific instructions. The horse was even brought into the family chapel for the service and I remember thinking it was totally surreal and I was only six. My great-grandfather was a mason, so there were little old men in aprons and funny hats. Everything including her coffin was lavender and I remember my father saying that he felt like he was in a Fellini film. It was much later and after many retellings that I understood his reference. JacquelineM is right, funerals do bring out the bizarre. But we did eat very well that day, and I later inherited my great-grandmothers Spode Blue Italian tea set :)
I know that tea set must be very precious to you! I love love Spode Blue Room collection pieces. And I love your story! Thank you for sharing it! I am reading it to my girls!
Neither horrified nor amused—-it just made me smile!
That sounds like a good cup of tea!!!
Rest in peace :) I’m glad they were ashes, and not a skeleton, but I would have understood even if it were a skeleton :) :) :)
There is something about funerals and burials that bring out the absurd. I guess because death is so scary. It was so horrible at the time, but my grandmother threw herself in her sister’s grave at the cemetery, and also we had a closed casket for my grandfather, but somehow she summoned super human strength and ran out of the pew and OPENED HIS CASKET in the church to say goodbye! We laugh about it now but I thought I was going to faint both times!!!
What a day! Glad you found him(!) and may he rest in peace. Yay for a good cup of tea to end the day.
@Jacqueline – I’m actually laughing out loud. I would love your grandmother!
Uniquity – she has passed on – and had a PINK coffin!!!!
Good for her! : )
I’ve already asked friends and family to skip a funeral and just hold a memorial tea party.
gmathis – What a great idea!
Jacqueline – I LOVE the pink coffin! I had a neighbor who was like a grandmother to me and she loved pink. She had a pink house, pink chair, pink washer and dryer, pink stove and oven. She taught me to garden. After she died I bought Lady Carlyle china because the pink floral pattern reminded me of her and in warm months, that is what we use for every tea party. (In cold months we use Old Country Roses, and year ’round we sometimes use Spode Blue Room pieces for a change.)
This is so a month ago, but I found your story so touching. Traditions and ceremony are so comforting in times of tragedy. I guess it’s our waybof controlling what we can. My great-grandmother was very eccentric, (because she was wealthy otherwise she’d be called just plain nuts), and she had a horse that she adored and kept on her property. Her driver/ horse caretaker Mr. Cissin was tasked with bringing the horse to her funeral as per her specific instructions. The horse was even brought into the family chapel for the service and I remember thinking it was totally surreal and I was only six. My great-grandfather was a mason, so there were little old men in aprons and funny hats. Everything including her coffin was lavender and I remember my father saying that he felt like he was in a Fellini film. It was much later and after many retellings that I understood his reference. JacquelineM is right, funerals do bring out the bizarre. But we did eat very well that day, and I later inherited my great-grandmothers Spode Blue Italian tea set :)
I know that tea set must be very precious to you! I love love Spode Blue Room collection pieces. And I love your story! Thank you for sharing it! I am reading it to my girls!