Mary stood before the glass-fronted cabinet. “I see you have Mother’s silver tea pot.”
“With the dent turned to the back,” Dorothy replied.
Mary chuckled. “Good thing her throw missed Father, she might have dented his head instead of the pot.”
“Remember how she toasted every monarch’s death and coronation with that tea pot?”
“Nothing but Twinings English Breakfast, if I remember rightly.”
Dorothy took the tea pot out of the cabinet. “I think we should revive her tradition, now that we have a new queen.”
“I hear she prefers Twinings Earl Grey tea.”
“With a dash of milk.”
#99WordStory #TeaRituals #TeaPot #TwiningsEnglishBreakfast #TwiningsEarlGrey #CreativeNonFiction #1952 #FamilyHistory #HighamFamilyHistory #Monarchy #MargaretGHanna
The backstory:
In 1952, Mary, my maternal grandmother, returned to England (Cornwall, to be exact) to visit her two sisters, Dorothy and Clive. This was only a few months after Princess Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II.
My maternal grandparents were staunch monarchists. They could list off all the kings and queens and their children and relatives and whom they had married, and they made sure their children (my mother and her siblings) knew all that as well. I assume they learned this from their parents, and my grandmother’s sisters were like-minded.
My grandmother’s mother, Amelia Appleton, did indeed throw her husband out when she learned he had been unfaithful. The story goes, she used language that would make a sailor blush. Whether or not she threw a tea pot at him, if a silver tea pot even existed, is pure speculation. But why let a few facts get in the way of a good story?
A Prairie Perspective 
Good story Margaret and very timely too! I believe coronation day has just been announced for 6th May next year. Maybe you’ll have some Twinings English Breakfast yourself on that day remembering your grandmother? You could always chuck the teapot at a wall in symbolic memory😂
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Your short stories are wonderful (and the length is perfect for my ADD)
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They are in response to a themed 99 word challenge – write a story in exactly 99 words, no more, no less. Sometimes easy, sometimes not so much.
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