THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS CELEBRATE ANNIE

Book One of the Celebration Stories featuring
THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS
Copyright October 2015

[part2]          


          The menu for the tea party was somewhat the same from year to year, always featuring peach tea served from a large crystal bowl borrowed each year from Mrs. Cloar’s mother, Alba, who had helped with G.A.’s longer than even she could remember. Along with that there were always tiny aluminum cans of Ginger Ale submerged in galvanized tubs.  There were delicate sandwiches on glass trays, and something Mrs. Cloar called crudités (CREW-DUH-TAYS) that were raw vegetables like carrots, celery, broccoli, cucumbers, and cauliflower, cut into small pieces, surrounded by cherry tomatoes, and ready to dip in dressing. Sometimes the vegetables were served alongside fruit, though tonight the fruit would be strawberries and grapes placed around a glass platter of Baklava. Baklava—made of phyllo dough, butter, honey, and crushed nuts—had been chosen as the dessert, since it is associated with Roman times and could possibly have been served by Lydia to the apostles Paul, Timothy, and Silas (Silvanus) in Philippi. Lydia was the woman in the Bible who would be featured in tonight’s story from Acts 16.

          There were always tablecloths in assorted flowered fabrics from Mrs. Cloar’s mille fleurs (MEEL-FLUHR) collection. They resembled huge antique handkerchiefs, and each table was centered by flowers. The glass cups and plates usually reserved for wedding receptions were unpacked each year for this occasion, and pink candles in glass holders on each table completed the scene. When Mrs. Cloar walked upstairs from the library, she found Makayla and Taylor already hard at work arranging the tablecloths in the Fellowship Hall. Their mother, Allison, already had the peach teabags submerged in the hot water on the stove, and Deb, who had served as a missionary in Belize and Africa, was rinsing the glass plates and cups at the sink to make sure they weren’t dusty from storage.

          This particular year featured a craft that would acquaint the girls with the time in which Annie Armstrong lived, about a hundred years ago. Ladies from the WMU (Woman's Missionary Union) would be making the craft, too, so Mrs. Cloar had ordered plenty of fresh lavenders from a friend of hers who grew them in Virginia, and had collected some small spring flowers and wildflowers from her own yard to mix in with the lavenders. The craft, like a tiny corsage for one’s lapel, was called a “Tussie Mussie” (TUH-SEE MUH-SEE), though could be made larger and carried at weddings. Mrs. Cloar hoped the girls would remember their G.A. years when they were getting married and starting families of their own.

(THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS CELEBRATE ANNIE is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)