I am trying to remind myself to write down memories as they come. Someday, I may need a little help to remember them. This is one that goes back to the 1960s, around the time when I was in 2nd grade.

The other day, Rachel was out shopping and came across a box of Typhoo tea. It was on sale for $3.78 and had 240 tea bags inside. Now, let me tell you that Typhoo is my absolute favorite English tea. That is the brand my mother always served in her home up until the time she passed. She bought loose-leaf tea and made it by the pot. That is something that I have continued, although, I usually drink tea in spurts that last a month or so, and only happen about every five years.

Recently, while shopping at a store that carried a lot of British goods, I mentioned that I would like to find Typhoo for the Keurig. I went on line, but it appears to be something that has not been produced. Rachel remembered that and snatched up this box for me. I really don't like tea bags. I know that nobody believes me, but I can taste the bag. Therefore, I used one of my refillable Keurig cups by ripping open the tea bag, pouring the tea into the Keurig cup, snapping it shut, and brewing a cup using the medium size setting.

With one sip of that wonderfully full-flavored tea, I was immediately transported to a wonderful memory from around 1965. At that time, we lived on Fairchild Avenue on Lackland Air Force Base. On Sunday afternoons, we had a family ritual. Mom, would go into the kitchen and make tacos. She made them with corn tortillas which she fried to make the shells, the cheapest chorizo she could buy, shredded cheddar cheese, and chopped onions and tomatoes. She would also brew a delicious pot of Typhoo tea. We would all sit in the living room at our TV tables and enjoy our tea and tacos while watching the bullfights from Mexico on our black and white TV. We would not have a color television in our house until Daddy came back from Vietnam about five years later. For my younger readers, I should explain that color televisions were extremely expensive back in the day. It wasn't until they had been out for a while that the cost came down enough for poor people like my family to buy them. I remember seeing one in the lobby of my grandparents' motel, but they were fairly well off. Besides, they probably wrote it off as a business expense.

Moving on... There are a few things about this tradition that would never fly in my own home. I will list them for you:

1) There is no way we would let our boys eat those tacos in the living room. That cheap chorizo was so greasy that channels of orange grease flowed down our arms. I don't remember ever making a mess with them, though. Daddy would have freaked. You didn't do anything in base housing that could ruin the borrowed furniture or the carpet. We actually had to pass a white glove inspection when we moved out. They were so severe that my mother actually hired a service to clean the house. Everyone knew that you would pass inspection that way. Looking back at it, I think it may have been a bit of a racket. You know... Hire these ladies and the inspector got a kickback.

2) Rachel would never eat a chorizo filled taco. Neither would a lot of people I know, if they read the label. The really delicious authentic Mexican chorizo is made from pork salivary glands, lymph nodes, tongues, cheeks, and fat. None of those bother me. In my opinion, meat is meat.That's pretty much the same as a hot dog, but we genteel Americans usually put "pork and pork byproducts" on our labels. What do you think pork by products are? Chocolate cake?

3) Our tea would no longer have sugar and cream. We rarely use sugar except for baking in our house. We only cream for Christmas dinner's mashed potatoes.

4) I don't think bullfights have been on the local TV lineup for decades

Just the same, it is nice to have these little flashbacks to those special times spent with my family as a child. I had a great childhood. Sure, there were those moments that weren't so wonderful. That is true for everyone. But, overall, my childhood was a fun ride.