Tea Time (036/365)

“Strange how a teapot
Can represent at the same time
The comforts of solitude
And the pleasures of company"

Zen Hakiu

TIME: 9:32 AM
PLACE: The kitchen
SUBJECT: Enameled tea kettle

This teapot sits on top of my refrigerator.  It originally belonged to my maternal grandmother, Mamie D---.  My mom told me that water was boiled in this kettle every day for tea, coffee, oatmeal, doing the dishes, cleaning and anything else that needed hot water, including baths.  The kettle now has rust spots and today I noticed a small hole has recently emerged through the rust on the bottom of the kettle.  Mineral deposits have long constricted the spout opening and coat the inside.  Although I cannot use it, I keep it for a connection to my ancestors and my past.  It reminds me that Grandma had a stove the same color as the kettle.  The stove had four gas burners, two gas ovens above and a wood burning oven down below.  It reminds me that when I was four,  I opened the door to the wood oven and found that Grandma and Grandpa stored their cereal and crackers there.  It reminds me that the gas burners had heavy covers on them that you lifted off with a special metal pry bar.  It reminds me that moments are the things that are remembered and kept forever.