...a ceaseless rhythmic tramp—the tread of hundreds and thousands marching through history -- Tea Leaves revisited for #LGBTHistoryMonth #amreading #mothers

I was inspired by some recent events concerning my book Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters, (Bella Books, 2012), to post two brief excerpts from the book in honor of LGBTQ History Month.

History intersects in us. In my case, history intersected in class as well as in the history of feminism, which became LGBTQ history.

The YouTube video of me reading from Tea Leaves is below, and I have pasted the text underneath.

My mother had always been active—walking four miles a day, eating healthy foods, reading widely, taking an interest in life. But over the past several years there were signs that

she was withdrawing—what the medical professionals calls “shutting down” which can happen before the final stage of life. The first thing to go was the women’s liberation

marches. There weren’t as many of them as in the early seventies when I was a pre-teen and my mother took me with her and, later, in the early 1980s, when I encouraged my

mother to come with me. But when smaller demonstrations did turn up, here and there, my mother refused to go.

“Oh, Janet,” she would say, “you know I hate crowds.”

The fact was that I didn’t know she hated crowds. But the resignation in her voice stopped me short. The flat, almost sullen, tone that crept into my mother’s voice had no problem telling me that she couldn’t possibly even stand the thought of marching around with a placard, gleefully chanting hey, ho, patriarchy’s gotta go.

 ----

My mother told me that when she was a girl that my grandmother would tell her stories about her own childhood. Her favorite stories were about the People’s Theater, where

she would sit in the front row with her cousin Adelaide, each of them sucking on a dill pickle, drooling as they tried to catch the eye of the actors. One day the two of them,

between nudges and giggles, caught the eye of Romeo and when he looked at the two girls, their lips puckered over their pickles, he flubbed his lines. “Good Goose” became “Goose

Goose.”

Ethel and Adelaide played Fairy number one and Fairy number two in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” My grandmother’s lines —“Hail, hail!”—were less memorable

than her dress, filmy chiffon, petals flowing down from her neckline. The dress may have belonged to the theater company, but as she stood on the stage, the dress—and the

audience’s applause—belonged to her alone.

Her memories would have swirled through her mind as she stood sweltering in the textile mill, reloading the spools that needed to be filled faster than she could keep up. Her

back might have been aching and her fingertips numb—she might have been wondering how she could afford to pay the rent—but in her dreams she was stately as a queen as she

stood center stage. Her green chiffon dress was a waterfall cascading down her. Ladies in waiting stood behind her. A diamond tiara sat on her head, sparks of light reflected in

Romeo’s eyes. He knelt at her side, staring up at her, as rapt as the audience seated in its plush red velvet hall. Romeo reached his hand toward hers, then vanished.

Where for art thou, Romeo? The words dropped from her lips, the life that could

have been, as the curtain descended in front of her.

Sitting in the living room with my mother, I could hear the distant applause, replaced suddenly by the din of the mill. The noise of the loom, the thud, the thwack, entwined

with a ceaseless rhythmic tramp—the tread of hundreds and thousands marching through history.

You can get copies of Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters at your local library, your local bookstore or wherever books are sold online.

 To order your copy, click here: Tea Leaves: Mason, Janet: 9781594932786: Amazon.com: Books

CINNAMON, my most recent novel, is available on amazon.com: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books

CINNAMON is also available through your local bookstore and library

(just ask them to order it if they don’t have it).

For more information on my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders published by Adelaide Books click here.

To learn more about The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

For more information on my novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage, click here.