Mom’s curio cabinet was filled with English teacups and saucers, crystal bowls and silver candlesticks. China place settings were tucked in white-padded sleeves near long-stem wine glasses at the top of a kitchen cabinet. Silver cutlery had its own drawer in the buffet, right above a stash of silver platters.
A few days before a holiday dinner, I’d prepare for Table-setter Duty; polish tarnished silver, count forks, spoons and knives, and make sure that linen napkins were stain-free and ready to fold into fancy fans. Mid-holiday-afternoon, I’d stand on tiptoes beneath the kitchen cabinets that held mom’s serving treasures, carefully retrieving dishes, glasses, and gravy boats from the top shelves. With uncharacteristic patience and caution, I’d set each piece on the dining room table before returning to the kitchen to get another. Holidays would be far less magical if I broke, dropped or chipped any of the Special Stuff.
Long after I had my own family, china, crystal and tea cups, I was still setting mom’s table on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Occasionally, I’d help prepare for a fancy summer tea party. As gracious as a queen, mom would spoil friends, daughters and grandchildren with finger sandwiches, tarts and tea that she served on (or in) the Special Stuff. Just holding the creamy white handle of a teacup painted with purple-blue Forget-me-nots made us feel grown-up, special, loved.
I think about mom whenever I reach for one of her teacups and saucers, now lovingly stored in my dining room hutch. For decades, as I was setting our holiday table I often wondered why we never used the china, crystal or silver again until the next holiday. Why not sip tea from an English teacup on a weekday afternoon, or eat pizza on a china plate at the dining room table?
“It isn’t quite as special if we use it every day,” Mom would say. “But we could take the china out more often.”
Perhaps she was afraid that extra use might cause the Special Stuff to chip, break, or look less sparkly. But experts agree that using and washing china actually strengthens its glaze. So, too, does sterling silver shine more brightly when used more often.
Nowadays, whenever I make tea, I sip it from one of mom’s beloved china cups. Too often, I find myself wishing that on one of the hundreds of ordinary afternoons when I visited her, I had insisted on pouring her tea in a cup fit for a queen. Because the Special Stuff not only makes a particular day feel holiday-special, it makes the person using it feel special - whatever time, day, or moment that may be.