Fort Morgan Senior Center looked like it was from a different era Wednesday afternoon as the seniors celebrated Valentine’s Day with a full-on tea party.
The tables were covered in lacy or crocheted tablecloths and tea service items, like tea pots, sugar cube dishes and small cream pitchers. Each seat had a place setting with a china tea cups, plates, teapots and tea service items. Risers in the middle of the tables were filled with plates of finger sandwiches, scones, pastries, candy and cookies.
The people looked a bit different from normal, too, with the around 30 ladies and one man wearing fancy hats and many of the women putting on lacy jackets, shawls and scarfs.
One person who was noticeably absent from the tea party was the woman who dreamt it up. Ruth Wickham is convalescing in Valley View Villa, according to her daughter, Jody (Wickham) Hedstrom, of Colorado Springs.
A while back, Ruth had arranged for Hedstrom to bring her large collection of tea party dishes, lacy garments and fancy hats to Fort Morgan for the tea party on Valentine’s Day, Hedstrom said. But her mother wound up not being able to be there for the actual party. She said she asked Ruth if she should still proceed and was told not to cancel it.
“I think me just saying ‘I’ll do this anyway’ will make her happy,” Hedstrom said.
Hedstrom enjoys getting out all her fancy tea party dishes and clothes and having people be able to use them.
“I moved into an old 1897 Victorian home that was a ‘painted lady,’ like in San Francisco. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m an old lady now. I can have tea parties,'” she recalled of how her tea party collection began about four years ago. “I’m an accomplished thrift store shopper.”
Hedstrom is not doing this as a business, instead calling it “a hobby.”
She had 36 places set at Fort Morgan Senior Center for the tea party, and there were only a couple empty seats when things got underway Wednesday afternoon.
Many of the party-goers put on hats and lacy tops, with even the lone male attendee, Richard Reiber, plopping a flowered straw hat on his head.
Senior Center Coordinator Lorelei Kilker and Rec. Aide Carol Gomez also couldn’t escape the tea-party-appropriate clothes.
“You girls need to have hats, too, so you look like you’re part of the tea party,” Hedstrom said, cajoling Kilker into slipping on a sheer jacket and a wide-brimmed, white, flowered hat.
Gomez also dressed up in a lacy jacket and fancy hat. How could she refuse with the whole crowd at the senior center watching.
“Jody’s pretty awesome,” Kilker said. “She set up al of this. It’s a good idea. It brought a lot of people out.”
Kilker also credited Senior Center Advisory Board member Dottie Taylor with helping organize the tea party.
Barb Merrill was one of the seniors who attended the party. And while she chose not to put on a hat, she did partake in cups of tea, finger foods, conversation and the games.
“It’s very good,” she said of the actual tea.
Gomez ran the games, first having the seniors guess the famous couple she was describing. Correct couples included Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Next up was some Valentine’s trivia, such as whether it was good or back luck to receive a signed Valentine in Victorian days (it was back luck), the percentage of women in the United States who send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day (15 percent), and the origin of candy’s association with Valentine’s Day (a line in “Hamlet” that says “sweets to the sweet”).
The seniors also competed in completing a Valentine’s Day word search.
Taylor and fellow Senior Center Advisory Board member Erma Dechant were thrilled by the turnout at the tea party.
“This is outstanding,” Taylor said.
“I think this just really went great,” Dechant said. “I’m just really pleased with the turnout. I think they did a fantastic job on our place settings and everything.”
Hedstrom said it definitely had been worth it to bring everything out to Fort Morgan for this tea party.
“It is so much fun seeing people get together,” she said. “I love my stuff being used.”
Jenni Grubbs: jgrubbs@fmtimes.com or Twitter @JenniGrubbs
