Tuesday, June 11, 2013

A most memorable tea room visit!

This is not my usual sort of post, friends, but I hope some of you will find it humorous! You see, I've been cleaning out lots of old files lately, and I came across the poem I wrote following a particularly memorable teatime birthday luncheon with some girlfriends years ago. (Yearrrrrrrs ago. I'm 49 now, and this was the year I turned 31!) My friends Liz and Melissa, along with Melissa's baby daughter Elizabeth, took me to tea at a nearby tea room, which shall remain nameless. We had a lovely time until the end of our meal when Liz bit into her dessert, an ice cream and nut concoction called "Mackinac Delight," and promptly chomped down on a big piece of broken glass (probably from the jar containing the dessert's sauce, we later learned)! There was so much blood it took all our napkins to sop it up, and the nervous tea room owner even offered to call an ambulance!

Liz recovered, by the way, and no, she didn't file a lawsuit.

The tea room soon went out of business. (You're shocked, aren't you?)

Here's what I wrote about the day to share with my friends:

My 31st Birthday

It was to be a birthday tea
Melissa, 'Lizbeth, Liz and me
To Sharpsburg we would go and eat
A simple meal, a birthday treat!

Ladylike and finely dressed
We found a seat to sit and rest
while ordering such tearoom fare
as we considered proper there.

A glass of water, lemon spiked,
was just the sort of thing I liked
to quench a simple little thirst—
I was the one to order first.

My lady friends, they followed me
(Melissa even ordered tea).
The sandwiches would soon be here
so we enjoyed the atmosphere

Of pretty tables, floral things,
wishing we had diamond rings.
The kindly owner brought our food
and hoped it would be very good.

We liked our meal, it soon was blessed,
but with dessert would come the test!
Scarlett's Favorite was my first choice
the name alone says why, of course.

Melissa wanted cheesecake, though;
the list of desserts continued to grow.
But Liz saw something she found appealing;
This dessert would leave her reeling.

The menu said "Mackinac Delight"
and Liz thought this would be just right.
Soon a smiling woman came
And said to enjoy our dessert game.

For, typically, we planned to share
so all could sample the lovely fare.
Melissa's, mine, they both were great
But something was wrong with Liz's plate.

And while on chocolate we were feeding
she cried aloud, "My tongue is bleeding!"
What should we do, where should we go,
the correct response we did not know.

But what we did know occurred at last
that Liz had somehow eaten glass!
The horrified owner felt sick and hurt
while watching Liz's tongue's blood spurt.

"Ith OK," said my nurturing friend.
"Reary, thith ith not the end."
So we somehow managed to enjoy the lunch
Too bad about the ice cream's crunch.

Question of the Day: Have YOU ever been to tea where something bad happened? If so, how did you handle it? (I write bad poems, obviously!)



12 comments:

  1. I thought the poem was good Angela, well done! A terrible thing to have happened though.
    No tea room drama, but once in a restaurant my salad with chicken was missing the chicken. I lifted up lettuce etc. here and there to show the waitress. My meal was free because of the error, hopefully your friend was given the same courtesy.
    Judith

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  2. The poem says it all. I could just imagine what could have happened. I was taken for a Mother's Day with two daughters and granddaughter. While eating our lunch, my Granddaughter began moving closer and closer to me away from the wall. When we looked closer we saw why. A whole line of ants were parading along the wall to our table. We were moved to another table and just couldn't bring ourselves to go back. Judy

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  3. Oh, my! What a horrible experience! Bless your friend for taking it in stride. Cute poem! I've never had a bad experience at a tea room, but at Olive Garden I scooped up a large piece of soft plastic in my Toscana Soup. [It was from the bag the soup was packaged in at their main kitchen.] I wasn't injured like your friend, and the management went out of their way to make amends. My meal was free and they gave me a $25 gift card.

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  4. I enjoyed your poem,and Yes,You are a wonderful poet :) What an upsetting experience,We all know tongues can really bleed heavily.I do feel for the owner though.Denise

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  5. I think the poem was funny - but the incident wasn't funny at all, but very scary! I'm glad your friend recovered uneventfully. And yes, the tea room should have comp'd the whole ticket. Accidents do happen but that's unacceptable.

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  6. Oh my goodness! That certainly was a memorable tea experience!!

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  7. Good poem, bad experience for Liz. ☺ One tea room I visited served a green wormlike creature with the tea tray. It had hitchhiked onto the tray with the fresh garden flowers.

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  8. Oh dear, glad your friend survived. These things are sometimes out of the control of the food preparer and sometimes missed. Twice in two different restaurants (not tearooms) we have found a bolt in the food. And like I see relevattealeaf say my meal was also free, but no gift card.
    Fun poem.

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  9. I love that you commemorated the day and the incident with a poem! How unique! Such an endearing quality!
    I enjoyed it immensely.

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  10. Great little poem with happy memories interspersed with a sad event.

    About 20 years ago a group of colleagues and I went out for a meal before Christmas. As I cut into the cauliflower cheese I realised that mixed in was a snail.

    The restaurant was very embarrassed and not only replaced my meal with a million apologies, but refused to accept payment for the whole meal for the complete table. They must have lost out by several hundred pounds, but I guess it was worth it to save their reputation.

    The restaurant is still in business and the last time I went in for a meal I was given a discount. When I queried it I was told "I remember you know when,so have a little discount on me!" after all this time there really is no need, so I usually tip generously!

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  11. What a fun (but yikes!!) poem! You really have a way with words, Angela!

    Thankfully, I've never encountered anything like that at tea, but recently I did have it happen at lunch, a big chunk of glass that I crunched down on in my chili from a fast food restaurant(picture a girl with bright red pig-tailed braids). Thankfully, I wasn't hurt, but boy, was I shocked! I called the manager, and drove back immediately, but not before taking pictures because at the time I thought I'd broken a piece of my dental work on it. The managers only question when I got back... "would you like another chili?". Um, no. No thank you. I haven't had chili since. *shudders*

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  12. What a story, Angela! So sorry it happened and I'm glad your friend recovered. I enjoyed your poem - you are such a good writer. Joanie

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