Thursday, May 21, 2020

Treasure Chest Thursday - Tea Anyone? Day 8 - 21 Day Family Connections Experiment


It's Day 8 of my 21 Day Family Connections Experiment.



Today is Day 8 for me, but Day 21 for those who started this Family Connections Experiment May 1st. 

Have a look around the web to see what some of the other participants have been up to. Lots of different experiences among us. 

Here are a few of the genealogy bloggers in the Experiment - 

The Genealogy Girl: https://thegenealogygirl.blog/


The Orthodox Genealogist: https://orthodoxgenealogist.blogspot.com/


Today I'm looking at another 'family treasure'. This time it's my mum's tea set. 

I always loved this china tea set, as did my mum. But it never seemed quite her style to me, as she most often liked bright colours. It is a charming set, I think. And it's only accidentally a tea set. She had hoped to have enough for a dinner set. But that was not to be.




She often mentioned to me the many shortages after WW II. When she and dad came to Vancouver, BC to live in 1946, first they stayed with dad's parents, but very soon they bought a house, 'the little house' both of them always called it, on 41st Avenue. 

It sounded to me as if that had been a very happy time in their lives, perhaps as it was their first time really living together - and making a home. In Washington, DC after they married, they lived in a furnished apartment, ate out and attended official parties and the like.  And certainly, it must have seemed they had fewer responsibilities once in Vancouver. (No war, no army, and no children - yet.)  But it wasn't all rosy. 

Dad had to have an operation. He then had to adjust to new work, and intended to start a new business. Mum wasn't working outside home, but was taking further dressmaking classes to update her skills and previous experience. And the 'little house' needed a lot of work and fittings and appliances were still hard to come by. I know grandpa Rogers helped them. Luckily he and dad were very handy. And mum did much of the gardening - she described both vegetables and flowers. 

They had been given money to go towards things for their new life. And somewhere in Vancouver, mum saw and bought this Royal Albert china set. She understood other pieces would have to be ordered. Only to find out after buying these pieces that the pattern was discontinued. No more like this could be had. I know even years later she was disappointed.

We often looked for matching pieces but never found any. It seems this must be one of the briefly made,'unnamed' Royal Albert patterns. I have since seen a similar pattern, but not the same. Mum later bought a dinner set of flowered china and I'm sure she bought every piece she wanted - all at once! She did like things to match.

Nonetheless this tea set saw lots of use, especially when the 'ladies' in the groups mum belonged to came to tea. 

Mum, all dressed up, and laughing, I think, in front of their 'little house', 1947, Vancouver, BC.


For more about the 21 Day Family Connections Experiment, see my first Experiment article here.

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