Slice of Lucy: Iced Tea

 

The movie "Steel Magnolias", which came out in 1989, spoke to me as an 18 year old southern girl who was hungry to shed home, get out into the world, and live a life I chose. The characters were a mirror to my life and identity. If ever there was a steel magnolia, it was my maternal grandmother, all 4'9" of her. She could command a room with her hard blue gaze, shoulders back and hands clasped in front of her, hair coiffed, wearing kitten heels and a wide gold wedding band, while feeding you some of the best food you'd ever eaten. Steel magnolia, indeed. 

In the movie, I loved Truvy's character, all the more because Dolly Parton played the part. (She was the kind of steel magnolia I wanted to be.) Truvy delivered my favorite line of the movie, probably a throw away for most people, but central to my lived experience. She said that iced tea was the "house wine of the South". Truer words have never been spoken. Now, my grandmother would not have approved of a wine reference outside of the type Jesus consumed, unfermented according to her religious teaching, and she certainly would never have approved of Truvy, although she would have prayed for her. However, my grandmother would have wholeheartedly agreed that iced tea is the beverage of choice for any and every occasion. Grandma always had iced tea at the ready. She brewed the tea in a small metal bowl with a full cup of sugar, then mixed in cold water and half a squeezed lemon in a large, pebbled glass container. She plied iced tea as a social lubricant, offering a tall glass to every person who darkened her doorstep, friend and stranger alike. When the women gathered at the dining room table to talk, our hands were wrapped around glasses of iced tea, which flowed as freely as the gossip. Those scenes are the backdrop of my childhood, and iced tea had a starring role. Iced tea is the comfort food of my childhood.

All this talk about iced tea was inspired by a rough day. When rental car issues and Arizona heat sapped the joy from our travels today, I found solace in iced tea. I drank at least a gallon, none of it as delicious as my grandmother's, but it made me feel better, physically and emotionally. Thank you, Grandma; I miss you.