The Central Village Homemakers’ tea held in March began when chairman Nancy Reno poured the first cup of tea. Being served from left are Gaylia Hudgins, Mildred Hudgins, Eileen Ripley, Reno, Madeline Horner, Janice Miller and Dale Robinson.

When Catherine of Braganza in Portugal came to England in 1661 to marry King Charles II, she brought with her a casket of tea becoming the first tea-drinking queen of England. Surely Catherine, who invited ladies to her bed chamber to have tea, never dreamed of what paths her favorite drink would take over four centuries later. From that start, the afternoon tea party was born between 1830 and 1840.

Tea came to this country with the Dutch settlers but not until after the Civil War did afternoon tea truly became popular and for the most part held in the British tradition. Today tea parties are still popular and presented in various forms and for various reasons.

Recently in Gloucester and Mathews, before this present age of social isola...