Celebrate Romance Every Day: SOS Aloha 6th Anniversary (Part 2): An Old Fashioned Tea Party

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. - Henry James

Last week, I shared how I discovered romance books in the Netherlands (link).  Following our NATO assignment, my family moved to Fort Meade, Maryland. I worked part time, enabling me to volunteer with the Officers' Spouses' Club.

In January 2007, Fort Meade celebrated its 90th Anniversary - the spouses' club polished its silver for the gala.  This inspired the post commander to suggest the spouses' club host an Old Fashioned Tea Party. As the Vice President for Social Events, I took the reigns to execute her idea.  I recruited spouses of senior officers to host tables using their own tea sets. They took it one step further to create themes:

- Bal-TEA-more table hosted by an Army spouse as Wallis Simpson, a native of Charm City)

- Scotland Forever hosted by a Navy spouse who lived in Alba

- Boston Tea Party hosted by an Army spouse from Bean Town

- The Best Damn Scones table hosted by a Canadian spouse
- Children's Tea Party hosted by an Army spouse with a miniature tea set

Duchess of Bedford

Public Domain (link)

As my friends embraced the themes, I researched the history of afternoon tea.  From Historic UK (link),

Afternoon tea was introduced in England by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in the year 1840. The Duchess would become hungry around four o'clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o'clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess asked that a tray of tea, bread and butter and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.

I named Anna, the Duchess of Bedford, as the honorary hostess. As a fan of historical romance, I was familiar with English titles and sought to educate the other spouses. I located a "brief run down" of English titles from romance author Jo Beverly (link). I contacted Jo to ask her permission to reprint the article for the tea party. Jo not only gave me permission, she also donated two books to giveaway. Jo's generosity inspired me to invite romance authors from the Washington Romance Writers (link). I was over the moon when many accepted my invitation, including Binnie Syril Braunstein, Diane Gaston, Sally MacKenzie, Cathy Maxwell, Mary Jo Putney, Tracy Anne Warren, Hope Tarr, and Rebecca York. I also invited Kathryn Falk, Lady of Barrow and founder of RT Book Reviews - she took the train from New York.

I encouraged the spouses to dress the part by offering one raffle ticket for each "vintage" item, including  hats, gloves, pearls, and "must haves" in a purse, such as compact, atomizer, and linen handkerchief.  My appeal was too successful that I had to limit spouses to 10 raffle tickets - they were all decked out for the occasion!

Finally, one of the spouses researched the genealogy of Anna, the Duchess of Bedford, and discovered she was a distant cousin of General George G. Meade, the civil war hero and namesake of the post.  It was fate!

This event demonstrated that readers want to connect with authors, laying the foundation of my blog to come.

General Meade, third from left, in 1863

Commanders of the Army of the Potomac

Public Domain (link)

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  What is your favorite flavor of tea?  Mine is Chamomile.

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, March 19, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, March 20.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Check out the Old Fashioned Tea Party in the Fort Meade Soundoff at this link.

Next week:  SOS Aloha's 6th Anniversary (part 3):  Andrews AFB, RT, and RWA