150702 Sweet Tea Controversy

My dad's birthday party is Sunday, but his actual 90th birthday is on Monday. He's in very good health, walks two miles every day, and takes only one medication. He delivers Meals on Wheels to "old people" who happen to be younger than he is. He didn't want a party, but my older sister insisted. Sigh. I'm not big on parties, either. Here's an incomplete list of tension inducing conditions:

1. People to invite: Dad refused to reveal the identities of his friends. My little sister deviously went to the Senior Center and asked people there, but is that everyone?
2. Where to house out-of-towners: It's the Fourth of July Weekend! There are no hotel rooms. Ten or so relatives thought they could stay in the guest bedroom at Dad's house. Cozy.
3. Menu: Big sis wants a blowout. We have to make everything ourselves, and it has to be perfect.

This is my worst nightmare, and the menu is where the major arguments have started. We don't normally argue. My immediate family has been a shining example of how the diverse personalities of siblings should get along. My brother died when my little sister and I were still in high school, so we simply quit bickering and became best friends.

Who knew that iced tea could be such a divider? My little sister volunteered to make iced tea. I asked if she would be making sweet tea. She said that she was making tea and would bring sugar. I told her that the rules of the South applied here. There needed to be sweet tea. She repeated that people could add sugar if they wanted their tea sweet.

That won't fly.

Both of my sisters left Texas in the 1970s, and have spent all of their adult lives north. I've lived in the South for more than forty years! A decade of that included rural Virginia and Tennessee. While I don't always agree, I do know a thing or two about Southern taste buds. We need sweet tea.

Sigh. I went to H.E.B. and bought some sweet tea. There's not room enough to discuss the okra controversy. Church's Chicken makes fried okra, which I will dump into a serving dish before we get to the party location. I hate big parties.