The Tea Party

The one with all the tomahawks and freedom.

You know, where the Bostonians gathered at the Old South Meeting House

 to hear Samuel Adams speak the truth,

 that Governor Hutchinson wouldn't do anything to stop the tea?

The one where they flooded the streets of Boston dressed like Mohawk warriors,

and climbed aboard the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, 

and tossed tea into seas until dawn? 

Yes, that one. The one they took to calling The Boston Tea Party.

Well, we took to celebrating it this year. And I grin big as I write it.

I patterned most of it after that Disney movie, Johnny Tremain, based on the book Esther Forbes wrote during WWII, and even then Esther understood it, and she wrote, "For what do we fight? Only that a man can stand up." Yes, I played the Liberty Tree on my penny whistle and we nailed the Declaration to the tree and sang all the verses of the song.

Getting ready for the night! You can see all the blankets we needed to not look like ourselves, to ward off the cold that night! Oh, it was cold!

 No tea here! Cider was our beverage for the evening! Who could drink tea after dumping it all in the harbor waters? Ne'er a one, I tell you! Not after we got through!

Special peppermint sticks! I like these one's best. They're like mints---in a stick. They were mostly depleted  at evening's end!

We gathered at five o'clock to recount the history of our resistance and Samuel Adam's sober, "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country!" Then the glories began. Off we rushed!

Feathers, and paints, scarves and blankets, we banded in the streets, trailing through to Boston Harbor! I tried to make natural paint with cold cream and herbs and food coloring, but um, it dyed my cheeks purple. We used Will's military face paint instead.

A few of the local Mohawks. Disregard the deranged grin on the face of the person with the rifle. It means nothing. 

 These were the lanterns we bore to light our way and hang in the Liberty Tree at night's end, when all the tea was sunk into the sea, and we stood beneath the branches of freedom's arms, stretching and we sung these words:

Pay the price they're asking . . . 

Always pay the tyrant's fee

Never give up the struggle . . .

Fight for the Liberty Tree.

And I hope my tears never stop for the people who never gave up struggling until they paid. I hope we my time comes I can stand up, too, and pay a fee, if only another can stand up someday, somewhere, somehow.

 What Colonial party, any party in the U. house for that matter, would be complete without our Dutch Gouda cheese! I bought two, but by the time the party ends, there usually isn't one left.

Cider, cheese, peppermint sticks, and Cranberry Pumpkin muffins. Mm. I had made blueberry muffins, too, but if you've been journeying along with me awhile, well then, you know me and muffins. The Cranberry Pumpkin ones were delicious, if I do say so myself!

We all sat around the table, having a merry time in our Indian garb. 

 Discussing politics.

Being Indians, and loving it. 'Cause this part of our fight. Remembering. Many chipped in their lives so I could sit there smiling with the precious sister, so I could remember like this, all painted and toothy and teary for what they did. But I'll tell you, many remember, but the strongest part of our fight is the thanking, not many remember that. The being grateful, little though it may seem, as Gandalf said, "It's the little things that keep the evil at bay." So we live, and take smiling pictures, and act like the world has gone crazy and we're the sane ones, and live. Cause life's worthwhile when you realize what you got. "Thanks."

Dawna wore her white stocking cap with the feathers in it for two days.
And I have to say, I do wonder what the people would say, if they came in and found us all drinking cider with feathers and painted faces around our table. What would I say?
You can't imagine this big grin I have.
"Oh, hello! We just commandeered  thousands of pounds of East India Company tea without firing a single gunshot and threw them all overboard into Boston Harbor dressed as Mohawks and sang to a tree all night long!" *claps in delight* "Aren't we wonderful? Care to join us?"
Of course you'd like to hear a Rhino squeal and, "I'll go get my ball!"
Buuuuut . . . instead you get:

         

Have a wonderful day, everyone!