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Salad at the tea party There we were in the summer of 1951, four little 5-year-old girls having a tea party in the shade of the big oak tree in the backyard. We had borrowed Mama’s prettiest tablecloth to spread on the ground, and we set our table with the little pink dishes Santa brought last Christmas. As we poured our tea, we spied a beautiful three-leaved plant, all shiny and green. We filled our bowls full of this wonderful “salad” and ate every leaf. When Mama came outside, she forgot all about being mad at us for taking her good tablecloth because she realized we were eating poison oak! Mama grabbed us up and called the doctor. Back in those days, our doctor said the cure would be to wash our mouths out with Octagon soap. Well, to tell the truth, I can’t think of anything ever tasting as bad as that soap did. It probably really was a cure since I am here today to say, “I’ll never eat poison oak again, no matter how fine the tablecloth or how pretty the little pink dishes are at the tea party!” Ann Clayton | Asheville | Haywood EMC |
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