Dear Folks, I have an idea that I posted this story back in 2000 but any rate, I wanted to share my memories of it again. vee Tea and Toast June 8, 2000 This evening as I was fixing myself a snack of toast spread with butter and peanut butter, the smell of the bread toasting reminded me of one day when I was about eight years old when I spent a whole glorious afternoon dining on tea and toast. It was around 1939. Of course at my age now I don't remember all the details, only bits and pieces of that afternoon, but on a number of occasions over the years, that scene has continued to return to me. And every time I remember it, I can still recall the delicious taste of tea and toast. I remember sitting down at the little green wooden table I had been given for Christmas that year with my tea and toast. I'm certain that I must have brewed the tea myself, and I can only assume that the way I did it was to put a pan of water on the stove, add loose tea leaves to it and wait until it got dark enough. I probably then poured the tea through a tea strainer into my cup and set it on my little green table. And although I can't picture it, who knows but what I poured a bit of milk into a cream pitcher and took the sugar bowl to my table also. And do you know what? I have the feeling that I took the electric toaster along to the table as well as a loaf of bread and the butter dish. What I really remember is the delicious smell of the warm toast fresh from the toaster, the butter melting on it and then the delight of dunking the buttered toast into my cup of tea that I had added milk and sugar into. No, I don't recall that I was having any sort of "tea party" that afternoon with my doll or with our dog Brownie, and I don't recall pretending that I was anywhere other than where I was just then--in our house on 81st Street in Niagara Falls. I don't believe I even knew that we were still living in the times of the Great Depression, I just recall that I savored every minute of it just sitting there all by myself with my tea and toast. However, I also remember that it was around that time (around 1939?) that I first became aware of an occasional airplane flying overhead and remembering looking up at it and wondering if it had bombs in it that it would drop on us. I guess that even as a little kid, I paid attention to the news on the radio that my parents listened to. I guess I had heard of what was going on in Europe at the time. I have a feeling that I had heard that Germany had invaded Poland. But for the moment I still had my afternoon of tea and toast and with that, there was nothing wrong in the entire world.