When we were kids, we used to go and visit my grandparents at their house in Minnesota alternate summers. One year we would go see them, the next we would go somewhere else, Mammoth Caves, Washington D. C., The Blue Ridge Mountains, etc.On the years that we went to Minnesota, one of the family rituals was that we would get grandmother to retrieve the key to her china cabinet (a great, ancient oak and glass cabinet that took up most of one wall in the dining room) and get out the whistling tea cups. Grandma would make some Grape Kool Aid, pour it into the little tea cups and serve it at the dining room table. Her table always had a white lace table cloth on it which made us feel that we were having tea some place really fancy!
As opposed to our house that rarely had a table cloth on the dining room table (it was too easy to ruin a table cloth by doing homework at the dining room table. One pen fight and there would be ink all over the place.
The wonderful thing about these tea cups was that little tube you
see running down the side of the cup.
It leads to a small hole in the bottom of the base. What happens is when you sip your tea (or Kool Aid) from that side of the cup, some air is 
also drawn up from below the cup. The brief interruption of that stream of air by the liquid passing over the open upper end of the tube makes the cup issue a pleasant soft chirping sound, similar to a bird chirping.We would finish our "tea" and ask for more. As many times as we could. I am not to this day sure whether it was the amount we were drinking or our contest to see who could make the cups chirp the loudest that finally end the tea parties. My guess in retrospect is the later.
I hope that your day is your cup of tea!
Don Bergquist - 18-December-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado
2 comments:
Hi Don. Do you still have the tea set or came across it in your travels or know where I can get one?
Dear Anonymous Reader,
It is a cool set, isn’t it!? I didn’t actually “come across” this tea set in my travels. My Dad bought it for his mom (my grandma) when he was stationed abroad during the Korean War. It was because of my fascination with it when I was growing up that I inherited it.
I wish I knew where I could get more pieces for it! I’ve tried my sister’s favorite supplier for china (she was able to double our grandmother’s china set so that she now has service for 16 or some such nonsense) – I don’t want to do that, but I wouldn’t mind having a few matching service pieces.
As far as I know, anonymous reader, this set is pretty rare. I had thought of bringing it to the convention center a couple years ago when Antiques Road Show was taping here in Denver, but you know how it is… one thing happened after another and I never did make it down there.
If you should happen to find a source, AR, I would be grateful to hear about it. But I am sorry to report I cannot help you on this one.
Thanks again for reading and commenting!
Don
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