It was August, 1950. We were out in the backyard. My little sister Pearl had a little tin cup. My Aunt Barbara Cleage probably sent it to her. She gave me a pair of red shoes when I was about the same age.
I don’t remember the little tin cup Pearl is holding, nor the rest of the tea set it came from. The tea set I remember looked like the one above. It was kept in it’s red and white box and had been made-in-occupied Japan. While looking for a photo of it, I found that it was lusterware. I had just read a book where the woman had a prize lusterware set. I had no idea what it was. It wasn’t something we played with everyday, being special and used rarely for little tea drinking. The set lasted until I was grown up with children of my own.
When my oldest daughter was about two or three years old, she and her dad went to Detroit and visited my parents. I don’t remember why I didn’t go. Probably because Jilo was able to fly free in those days. My mother sent send the tea set back with her. One by one my daughters dropped them piece by piece. The last piece was the teapot. I use to keep it on a small shelf in my kitchen when we lived in Mississippi. It’s gone now. Disappeared.
Loved your outfits…nicely starched and ironed I might notice too! Tea sets from Occupied Japan…I had one also, probably around 3-4 years old. Silly to give them to kids that age…we just didn’t know about fragile. But I do remember the writing on the bottom, so some pieces must have lasted till I could learn to read! I don’t think mine were lusterware though, just hand painted porcelain. Amazing.
Always starched and ironed! You are right we had no idea. I remember later little tea sets in the family and they were thicker china and white with painted flowers. They also disappeared.
Those are both lovely snapshots to preserve a memory of a day. I liked your story of the tea set. It’s like a parable of how we all try to preserve those happy memories but in the end they get lost to history.
Yes. In addition to interviewing the elders, we need to interview the four year olds.
Wonderful photos and story. I had an enameled tea set, some of which has survived because it is metal. Unfortunate your original tea set didn’t survive — but thank goodness for the Internet, where we can often rediscover memory-provoking photographs of “lost” items.
Very true!
Cute, cute pictures! And I’m glad you showed the tea set. It reminded me of mine so many years ago! Except mine had blue flowers on white. I remember Mom letting my sisters & I actually pour weak tea from the pot into the cups once in a while. 🙂
We must have done that too. My oldest daughter says she does remember having tea parties with this tea set. waiting to hear more about it!
I have my mother’s set, the exact one from the photo. The only thing missing is the lid for the sugar bowl! It even still has its original box.
That’s great!