Tea for two (hundred)

Tu Tangata, Issue 28, 1 February 1986, Page 42

Tea for two (hundred)

By Alex Bidois

The sweat poured off me as the metallic fingers turned the sausages. Anxious youngsters waited, holding waxpaper plates. This must surely be sausage number three hundred and fifty by now. People were everywhere.

The day had started with a phone call at seven o’clock in the morning. A few minutes later my father’s voice, “Get up... hurry up.” I could hear him talking to Mum in the kitchen. “How many are coming?” “We 11... two... anyway... so Betty said.” “Maybe a hundred then... if we make enough for a hundred and fifty, that should do. What time did she say they'd arrive?” “About three and it’s only a cup of tea.” “A hangi would be ideal... we’ll have to 1et....” I quickly washed and went outside. Dad went off to town to get some mutton and call in to my Uncle and Aunty’s place. Soon they arrived back but with no mutton, only a huge bag of sausages.

“Looks like we’ll have to have a barbecue instead of a hangi.” Potatoes had been peeled, cakes had been baked along with loaves of rewana and the smell from the oven was delicious. Aunty Merle was inside helping prepare the food. My sister and cousin were busy buttering bread. We went to the hall and brought back the big teapots, the boilers and some tables. Everything was moving now.

“Two busloads” I thought, “my cousins, uncles, aunties, koros and nannies. How I wish they wouldn’t come what a brown! Bet the whole village would be ‘jacking’ over our fence!” At one o’clock Dad, Uncle Danny and I put the potatoes down in the hangi. While they went to get the watercress I cleaned around the carport and garage then put the tables neatly out. I boiled the sausages for a little while and at half past two Dad lit the big barbecue. Aunty Merle, Mrs F (the lady next door). Mum and the two girls soon had the tables covered with bread, coleslaw, potato salads, cakes, cordial, huge pots of tea and piles of crockery.