Chickens and Tea?!?

Tea can be used to celebrate so many different days and accomplishments. Maybe you know of people who have a tea party to celebrate a birthday, a promotion, a bridal shower, baby shower, or even to remember a historic event.

Last year, there were people that held tea parties commemorating the sinking of the Titanic. I'm sure these tea parties were very lavish. I also read about a tea party commemorating the 50^th anniversary of James Band. I wonder if when he had tea, if it was shaken, stirred or none of the above.

This last weekend the Ladies Aid at our church had a Valentine's Tea to commemorate the 100^th anniversary this particular group. Women of the congregation were asked to host a table and supply a centerpiece that was old, as the theme was, “Those Were the Days”. At my table, was my grandmother's teapot from the 1950s, a pair of sugar tongs from my other grandmother, along with an old tea strainer. 

The history of the Ladies Aid provided a fun afternoon with singing, skits, stories, historical information, and of course wonderful treats.

Of all of the information that was given, my favorite was about the chicken dinners that the women prepared. Someone had an old list of ingredients that dated back to the chicken dinner of 1938. Keep in mind, you couldn't just go down to your local grocery store and pick up precooked chickens.

Everything was done from scratch. The person in charge of the committee would start the fires (Yes, you did read this correctly, fires.) well before 5a.m. when the rest of the ladies to arrive and start work on the meal. The bread was also freshly baked in a brick oven. It took all day to make this meal that would be served from noon to 7:00p.m.

As you can probably imagine, this was a huge undertaking. Many women helped make this chicken dinner successful. As you can also imagine the list of ingredients was also very long. Hold onto your hats as you read this list; 1,000 chickens,10 bushels potatoes, 4 bushels tomatoes. 12 dozen noodles???, 24 dozen eggs, 64 heads of cabbage, 16 quarts cream, 32 dozen doughnuts, 24 quarts strained tomatoes, 4 gallons lard, 12 quarts salad dressing, 48 cakes, 25 pounds coffee, 30 pounds of butter, 75 pounds flour, 25 pounds sugar, 2 dozens lemons, 60 loaves of stale bread (most likely for their famous stuffing), 40 pounds pork, 30 gallons milk, onions, peppers, 15 pounds of salt, and finally, 30 more gallons of milk.

It's to bad that they don't have tea listed instead of coffee. Can you imagine 25 pounds of tea?

Anyway, the point is, you can celebrate anything with tea. Did we celebrate Valentine's Day? Yes. Did we celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Ladies Aid? Yes, and we had a great time celebrating too.

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