Blog Mirror: From A Hundred Years Ago: Poppy Luncheon Table

From A Hundred Years Ago:

Poppy Luncheon TableA hundred years ago luncheons with friends often had beautiful tablescapes designed by the hostess.  Here’s a suggestion for how to create a beautiful table featuring poppies:

Read the rest there.

It's easy to forget the little features of life like this and even come to believe they were not common. But as a small child I recall going places with my mother that sometimes involved tea at the houses of her friends, and even then seeing things like this.  I particularly remember her visiting "Mrs. Reynolds", who lived in a tiny house in a not very nice part of Casper.  In spite of her poverty, Mrs. Reynolds was a very dignified person.  She served tea in her highly ordered little house that had features such as this.

The other thing I really recall about her is that she was very elderly at the time, but that she had worked for a friend of my father's.  That friend had a troubled relationship with his wife and they ended up divorcing.  My father's friend later remarried.  Mrs. Reynolds found the entire matter scandalous, but the oddity of it, if there was one, is that she had left a marriage herself (I'm not sure if she divorced or simply separated from her husband).  I can't recall the details really, except that while neither my father or mother were proponents of divorce, my father found the whole thing odd in that it seemed a bit hypocritical on Mrs. Reynolds' part.  My mother would note that Mrs. Reynolds asserted that her husband had been an alcoholic or had some other character defect, of which my father was skeptical.

Well, the odd little details you remember from when you were young, although they often take a prompting such as this.