1975 Tea
I have heard it said that when you mention “tea” to an Englishman he will at once think of the four o’clock break that has been the custom for so long in England. An American will think of the Boston Tea Party although I have yet to meet an American who can tell the names of the three ships that figure in that famous incident.
More recently, coffee is replacing tea as a universal beverage but there are still a great many who like tea. There is something about tea that makes one remember the satisfaction it gave to a meal or even just as a refreshment.
When I was quite young, which is some time ago, most of the kitchens in the area where we lived had two teapots. One for green tea, one for black tea. Green tea was popular then though I have not seen any on sale in the grocery stores I have been in. Then came mixed tea, when green and black were blended and for a while this was popular. But with the passing of all the old people green tea has disappeared.
During, and even before World War 1, there was tea labeled “Lumberman’s Special.” This was almost green tea, and at some of Booth’s camps, I remember seeing huge boxes of this tea. Wooden boxes lined with the usual lead that tea came in then. The boxes were about thirty inches, and cubic. I would imagine that they would hold close to 100 pounds of tea.
Different times I saw working crews of these lumbermen and at times shared their lunch. Now I have never tried to drink a cup of sulfuric acid, but the first cup of that tea was almost as strong. These men drank cup after cup and enjoying it. It was really strong. After a few attempts it got to be drinkable, though I will always remember it as a not too pleasant drink.
To go further back, I can recall the times my brother and I would visit the old couple who lived a mile to the east of our so-called farm. One of the reasons we visited these people, besides the warm welcome children always received there, was the fact that there was always a big cake of maple sugar on the table, with a knife to cut off as much as you wanted, which was usually more than your stomach would stand. But we mostly had a meal. In those days, tea was part of the meal, not something you drank quickly after the meal was finished, and it was poured hot from the pot. The cups were large and I believe he used some milk or cream. Then he would pour the saucer full, take it in two hands, having parted his whiskers and moustache, take a big swig of the tea, then wipe his lips with the back of his hand and say, “Christmas, that’s hot!” I do not know how many times we heard him say this, also take the first drink of tea from a saucer.
As I said, tea then was the standard drink, and many kitchens always had the teapot on the stove. And those large white cups. Real cream and sugar if needed. And the cups were filled. Times I wonder if King David when he was writing the 23rd Psalm, and mentioned, when he was in a benevolent mood, “My cup runneth over”, I really think he was recalling some time when he had visited a home where they served good tea, and the cups were full.
The first purchase I ever made at a store was for a pound of tea. This was almost seventy years ago. We lived fourteen miles from the village of Haliburton, and every three weeks, went to do the shopping there. This time it had been my turn to go with Dad, and of course, there was the usual excitement of being in a place where there were quite a few people, and sometimes even got to see a train arrive at the station. The railroad then ended at Haliburton, still does.
But we were just about ready to hitch up the horses and start for home when dad remembered he had forgotten the tea. It was not far to the store, and I thought we would just drive past and pick up the tea. Since we were at my grandparent’s place, I guess Dad wanted to talk a bit more, so I was handed some money and told to go to Freeman’s store and buy a pound of mixed tea. This I did, and that is one little episode in my life I will never forget. To be sent out to spend money, all by myself, was a big undertaking. And will always remember the price. For that pound of tea, I paid the sum of twenty-five cents. And it was in a lead wrapped package.
It was just about that time that Seward bought Alaska from the Russians, later to become the largest state in the Union. (They did not buy it at all. Canada lost the panhandle due to a very lopsided bit of arbitration.) But to finish. If the Secretary of State was as proud as his purchase of Alaska as I was of buying that pound of tea, he was a very proud and happy man.
I have drunk tea in many places, and the best has to be in the woods. It seems to serve a greater purpose away back in there. Times the water was melted snow, with the rabbit manure strained out. But still good. And years ago, tea was an integral part of a meal. A working man would drink three or four cups each meal. And if you asked men working in the woods to have a lunch without tea, it would have caused a riot. Perhaps the people in the Boston area had a real grievance when they were so heavily taxed, and you can understand their militant reaction. But they can never be forgiven for throwing so much of it in the ocean.