Tea
November 4, 2004
I grew up with tea. For as long as I lived at home, I had at least one cup of tea every day of my life. Tea was the appropriate beverage for every occasion. It was especially appropriate first thing in the morning. My mother would bring me a cup of milky tea when she came into my room to wake me up every single day. Indeed, she had a “Teasmade” right next to her bed which woke her up. I have never seen a machine like this since those days. It was an electric alarm clock with two pots sitting behind it. One was a metal kettle which sat on an electric burner. This kettle had a spout that curled over into a ceramic tea pot. My mother would fill the kettle with water at night and put tea bags in the ceramic pot. She would take cups and saucers to bed with her, leaving them on the bedside table with the appropriate amount of milk and sugar for each person already inside. When the alarm would go off in the morning, the water would start to heat up, boil, and eventually move through the curled spout, ending up on the other side in the tea pot. The tea would brew for about 5 minutes and then Mum would have tea, having stepped not one foot out of bed. Then she just had to distribute it throughout the house to my brother and me as she started her day. Tea was a “good morning thing”. Coffee came around much later in my life.
Tea was also a “nighttime thing”.