Odessa, Texas 1988 - My friend Micah and I had just spent the morning catching horned lizards, digging holes, and kicking tumbleweeds. We were hot and thirsty and ready to go inside for a while to play Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda to be exact... We had made it all the way to Ganon but just couldn't figure out how to beat him. We knew it had something to do with the silver arrows, which we had, but we couldn't stay alive long enough to do the deed. Apparently there was a red ring hidden someplace that was supposed to make us strong enough but we never found it, and to this day I've still never beat that game.
But I digress...
Micah's mom, Shirley, was in their kitchen and his older brother was listening to Michael Jackson on his record player. We each drank a plastic cup full of tap water and then asked for some Kool-Aid. There was none to be had but Shirley asked if we'd like to help make some tea. Micah had little interest... but I was intrigued. My parents, who were from the "North" always drank coffee. I'd never made tea before so I volunteered to help. The first step was to boil water. This was achieved by filling a metal sauce pan from the tap, placing it on the stove, and then waiting until it reached a rolling boil. The next step was taking an orange plastic, half-gallon pitcher from the cupboard and adding two cups of white sugar and five or six tea bags. The water was poured in and left to steep for about 10 minutes. Shirley removed the bags and I mixed the tea with a large plastic spoon. We then poured our "tea" into tall plastic glasses full of ice and put the pitcher in the fridge. I took a sip and proclaimed: Tea is good!
After that, Micah and I each took a glass of "tea" and a bag of Chips Ahoy! (the exclamation point is apparently a vital part of the name) cookies and headed into the living room to play video games (for many hours).
The End.
(Now you know my earliest tea brewing memory. What's yours?)
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6 comments:
Zelda! I named my pet octopus Aquamentus after the first boss in the game. Boy my friends and I geeked out on that one.
My first memory is of Twinings Orange Pekoe bags in a mug after having microwaved the water. Big dollop of honey. I felt sick and mom said it would settle my stomach. I became hooked.
My first tea memory is my grandmother taking out a pitcher of iced tea out of the fridge every time we ate at my grandparents house. The best iced tea ever! Still to this day. She showed me how to make it a few years back. Get the dollar store black tea bags, boil water in throw in about 5 tea bags let them simmer. Add a few spoons of sugar to the pitcher, fill with ice then add the tea. Sounds simple but I never was able to get the same flavor as she does. I will stick to brewing my puerh and oolong. But still I have to have a big cup of iced tea when I visit them. How something so simple is so great made with a grandmothers love.
I don't actually remember many first memories involving tea.
But I definitely played Nintendo as a kid, and played Zelda too. I definitely got the red ring (it's somewhere in the last level, along with the silver arrows), and beat Ganon. I've been Zelda on the second quest too! That was such a great game, way ahead of its time.
And of course I remember Michael Jackson being popular back then too.
Still not far from how it's done at my Mom's house today, minus the sugar!
Now that I know you've never beat legend of zelda I may not be able to bring myself to read more of your wonderful posts.
First tea memory..hmm.. I dont remember, but you should definitely go back and beat zelda.
-Patrick Penny
Thanks for all the comments everyone. They really made me smile... especially yours Patrick. Beating that game is on my "bucket list." If it has any worth to you I 100% beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on SNES. But I doubt I'd be any good at either of them now, because I haven't played much of any video games for almost 15 years now (except Lumines 2 on PSP. I actually got very good at that game a couple years back ;)
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