Friendship Tea
When I was a child, and again when I was an adolescent and teenager, the question of “Is Boyd worth it?” was hotly debated among my teachers.
On the pro side were people like Julia Chadwick, Dorothy Kitchings, Dan Rose, Mitch Myers, Tom Semshorn, and Elizabeth Goodyear. I don’t even remember the names of the people on the anti side. Well, I do, but you don’t need to know that.
As for Madora McIntyre, she invested a level of trust in me I never felt like I deserved or could live up to. Fifty years later, I’m still trying. Maybe she picked the right one after all.
Despite my father’s close involvement with the University of Mississippi, his daily involvement with Millsaps College, and my family sitting near the Jack Woodward family in church, the prospect of my attending college was far from assured. Many people chuckled at the idea. “Maybe he can play football.”
I couldn’t play football. My right knee, the one that still doesn’t work, wasn’t working at all. I could lift heavy things with my legs, but I turned and pivoted about as well as a diesel locomotive--and then there was the pain.
My mother blamed unusual aspects of my behavior on the idea that I was a “willful child.” Which was, without question, the truth. Mothers always know.
My first real advocate was a woman who lived behind us named Martha Hammond. I called her “Hammond” because there were entirely too many Marthas in my life as it was. One had taken over my old bed in Nanny’s room.
While many women in the 1940s attended college to learn “Home Economics,” Hammond went to learn literature. She eventually got her terminal degree and taught literature and writing at a school in Clinton that we Millsaps folk only recently began speaking kindly about.
It takes a certain amount of faith to give books to a child who was three years behind in learning to read. Faith in the child, faith in the creator, and especially faith in books.
It turns out, she was right.
When I finally made it to college, a big college, not the one with the nursing students and cows, where I made the president’s list without particularly trying, I earned grades high enough in my first semester to be initiated into Kappa Alpha Order. Almost a 3.0, but not quite.
To celebrate my accomplishment and our long friendship, she made a big pickle jar full of friendship tea to take back to the dorm with me, after suggesting my mother give me an electric coffee maker for Christmas, which she did.
This week, I had an idea to make a batch of friendship tea, but one of the ingredients is even harder to find than Fresca in cans, which I also love.
Friendship Tea Ingredients
There are five simple ingredients in this recipe:
1/2 cup Instant Tea: You can find instant tea in the tea and coffee aisle of most grocery stores. Our tea powder was a black tea.
1 cup Tang: Tang is an old-fashioned orange-flavored drink mix that can be found alongside lemonade powder mixes in the grocery store. It is in an orange container. (This part is something of a lie. You CANNOT find Tang in the grocery store, or a reasonable facsimile, which is why I’m not drinking friendship tea as I write this.
1 cup Lemonade Drink Mix: CountryTime Lemonade works well.
1 tsp Cinnamon: ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cloves: ground cloves
Add one tablespoon of Friendship Tea mix to 6 or 8 ounces of hot water. Add more or less to taste.
As a child of decidedly mid-century parents, I have a lot of tastes for things that can no longer be satisfied, mainly their presence, and Hammond’s.
Children will surprise you if you let them. I don’t think I surprised Hammond. Her faith never wavered. I was three years old. How could she have known? Women see things the rest of us cannot.
