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Basket of OrangesEloise Harriet Stannard (1829 - 1915)
When MrsM took MrM home to meet her family
for the very first time
it was an important occasion.
MrM took the opportunity to demonstrate
the versatility of orange peel
and the sight of him
grinning over the teacups
with bright orange teeth
is burned into her memory.
As is the heart-stopping moment
when the bright orange moustache
disengaged from his nose
and splashed into the teacup below.
MrsM notes that she gave up eating oranges
around about this time in her life.
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Love your stories... always so perfectly told.
ReplyDeleteHappy December! It's the very end of November yet this side of the pond. May your december be full of all that is good.
Did he make a monkey face? We always make a monkey face with orange peel.
ReplyDeleteI love this. Could I tell you how much this has led me down the paths of memories? You may want to delete this asap.
ReplyDeleteI remember taking my person who was to become my husband home to Hawaii. I remember a fun filled night with lots of drinks (not me, not then) and he who was to be so important to me, disappearing, only to fall asleep under the house and being attacked by many, many mosquitoes.
It all turned out well, my family loved him and here we are 40 plus years still together.
Now, we will wander still..I love the scene in BBC'S Cranford where they all have to go to their own bedrooms to consume their own oranges in private..(she who abhores..sp? the word suck)which leads me down another path about my Grandmother Emma, who came in the late 1800's to Hawaii. Emma was from Blo'Norton..we could never say that we were full at the dinner table. It was only correct to say that we had had an ample sufficiency.
She was a true Victorian..I may have been the only three year old who knew the term Vulgar.
Forgive the ramblings...love your words and poetry and I give you thanks for enriching my life.
I think I like Mr M even more after hearing that tale. Orange teeth are part of my repertoire too.
ReplyDeleteAh yes ...
ReplyDeleteI was the original Jaffa gaffer. Only did it really to impress MrsM's younger brother who was rather short for his age and used to hang from the bannisters to make himself taller. Must have worked as he is now over 6' and taller than me.
The things one has to do. I was more frightened of MrsM's father who is 6'5".
Great story - I think we've all done something similar.
ReplyDeleteIt makes perfect sense after reading MrM's comment.
ReplyDeleteDoes he do the "spoon dangling from his nose" trick......?
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful - it makes Mr M seem all the more endearing. And explains much about the antics of his son.
ReplyDeleteI love that you share these wonderful memories - thank you.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I can almost hear the crispness of the paper in that painting.
PS - I should have added 'by his arms' in case anyone is reading this too literally. Would have been a one-off otherwise
ReplyDeleteWe just read about orange peel teeth in Finn Family Moomintroll. I wonder whether MrM could come to demonstrate?
ReplyDeleteWhen I first met Mr DC's parents I was very nervous, drank slightly too much wine (I was very young and not used to acohol) and knocked over a long stemmed, very expensive wine glass. That set of glasses is now in my cupboard, passed on to us when my mother-in-law died, and I treasure the memory. And now I have remembered that, I miss her all over again.
Good grief. I can't even remember Mr Coffee meeting my parents. I can remember it happening with - cough - other men.
ReplyDeletewell he can't have been that bad if he became Mr M... after all!!
ReplyDelete(is he aware of his responsibility for your vitamin C deficiency?)
But what I really want to know is what your parents made of all this tomfoolery...
ReplyDeleteHilarious. Orange peel teeth should be in every suitor's repertoire.....
ReplyDeleteOh no. But I think the younger brother explains it -- mine are responsible for all kinds of bad behavior on K's part.
ReplyDelete