U3A Benalla and District Inc.
  • Home
  • Benalla
    • Benalla
    • Benalla District
    • Who, What and Where? - Benalla Rural City
  • About
    • Our U3A
    • President's Page
    • Executive Committee
    • Convenors >
      • Convenors
      • Convenors A - Z 2023
    • Program Suggestions
    • Newsletter
    • Website
  • Groups
    • Groups A - Z
    • Recent Groups >
      • Armchair History
      • German - Beginners
      • Meditation
      • Russian Literature
      • Hot Topics/The News - Fact or Fiction?
    • Archived Groups >
      • A - M >
        • A Different View Of German History
        • Armchair Traveller
        • Booker Reading Group
        • Bushwalking - Mid-week Walks
        • Comparative Religion
        • Facebook for Mentors
        • Google Apps/TS Plus
        • History - An Introduction to Western Civilization
        • History - Moments in Australian History
        • Investment I (1996 -2015)
        • Legal Matters (Short Course)
        • Making the Most of the Internet
      • O - Z >
        • On Target - Learning to Shop Online
        • Opera
        • 'Over There'
        • Rail and Tourism
        • Tech Savvy Apple Devices - Intermediate
        • Tech Savvy Community Projects
        • Travel Group
        • Zoom Short Course
  • A-Col
    • A - COL
    • 'A Taste of Art'
    • Art Appreciation
    • Australian History
    • 'As Time Goes By' >
      • Home
      • 'Precious Objects'
      • 'Failure'
      • Our Stories - by topic
    • 'Be Connected'
    • Birdwatching
    • Brain Games
    • Bushwalking - Easy Walks
    • Cards '500'
    • Chat n' Chew
    • Coin Collectors
    • Collectors
  • Col-G
    • COM - G
    • Community Singing
    • Creative Writing
    • Demystifying Psychology
    • Enjoying the Internet
    • Exercises for Fun
    • Exploring the Universe
    • Family Research - Advanced >
      • Home
      • Family Stories
    • Family Research - Beginners
    • Film Discussion Group
    • Garden Appreciation
    • Garden Team
    • German >
      • German Home
      • Lessons
  • I - R
    • I - R
    • 'In the Lap of the Gods'
    • Investment
    • Jane Austen Book Club
    • Let's Talk Books
    • Lifeball
    • Meet and Mingle
    • Music Appreciation
    • Page Turners
    • Patchwork and Craft
    • Photography
    • Play Reading
    • Politics & Current Affairs
    • Recorder Group
  • S - Z
    • S -Z
    • Singing for Fun
    • Sky's the Limit
    • Stock and Land
    • Sustainability
    • Tech Advice
    • Tech Savvy Apple - 'Pages'
    • Tech Savvy Beginners - Android
    • Tech Talks
    • Ukes4Fun
    • Wine Appreciation
    • Wise Guys Book Group
  • Join
    • Join Us
    • Membership Application/Renewal Form
    • Program Guide 2023
    • Timetable - Month Overview
    • Full Timetable with Dates
    • New Courses 2023
    • Venues and Maps
  • News
    • News - General
    • March Newsletter
    • Calendar 2022
    • Monthly Calendar
    • Website & Facebook
  • FB
  • Gallery
    • Gallery 2022
    • Gallery 2021
    • Gallery 2020
    • Gallery 2019
    • Gallery 2018
    • Gallery 2017
    • Gallery 2016 >
      • + Christmas Lunch 2016
    • Gallery 2015 >
      • Christmas Lunch 2015
    • Gallery 2014
    • Lifeball Video
  • Links
    • Resources and References
    • U3A Network Victoria
    • Seniors Online Victoria
    • U3A Albury Wodonga
    • U3A Beechworth (Indigo U3A)
    • U3A Bright
    • U3A Wangaratta
    • U3A Goulburn Valley
  • Contact

'Family Ritual' - 'Rise & Shine' (with Milk Arrowroot biscuits!)

25/6/2019

 
Cuddled up, snuggling  in bed at my Devitt grandparents’ house in North Caulfield, dawn would be beginning to break when I would hear my grandfather gently waking me up, bringing me a cup of tea with two milk arrowroot biscuits to greet the day.  How I loved to see him; how I enjoyed the safety of my grandparents home and loved their ritual of regular cups of tea with Milk Arrowroot biscuits.

Some years later, cuddled up, snuggling in bed at my uncle Lex Devitt’s unlined house on Tiger Hill, I would wake to hear him, cheerful always in the morning, boisterously crushing paper to light the open fire.  An antique iron urn with tap, water still warm from last night’s embers, sat on an old piece of railway line which doubled as a fender and hotplate.  For many years I’d wake hearing my uncle lighting the fire, though the electricity was eventually connected and the sound of a boiling electric kettle replaced the urn boiling on the hub.  A biscuit barrel full of Milk Arrowroot always had pride of place on his the kitchen table, occasionally mixed with equally enjoyed Arnotts Teddy Bear biscuits ‘for a change’.   My uncle would loudly and happily exclaim ‘Rise and Shine’ as he brought us our cups of tea with Milk Arrowroot biscuits.
 
My Grandfather and Uncle were clearly ‘morning people’.  Cheerful and ready to meet the day, they enjoyed the ritual of preparing a treat with which to wake up their family, leaving special memories to be cherished over time.

The Milk Arrowroot biscuits weren’t only an early morning treat, they featured at afternoon tea and supper, whenever we had a cup of tea and cakes weren’t available.  This was often – we weren’t really a ‘cakey’ family.  I wonder now whether the  experience of the Depression and the need to make ends meet meant that the ritual partaking of Milk Arrowroot biscuits became an inexpensive way to have a treat! 

My sister, who takes a while to wake up and loves to snuggle up in bed before greeting a busy day, is blessed to have a loving husband who always wakes up early and brings her one, if not two, cups of tea in bed, often with Milk Arrowroot biscuits, each morning.  What a treat, and what a joy to have a husband happy to carry on the family tradition.

I can never go past the biscuit shelves at the supermarket without thinking of my grandparents, uncle, and also my mother, whose shopping lists always included ‘Milk Arrowroot biscuits’, with the occasional change to ‘Nice’ or ‘Malted Milk’.  A deep sleeper who often took time to wake up, my sister and I would take turns in giving our mother a cup of tea in the mornings, letting her know the time as we gently tried to rouse her.  Always with a couple of Milk Arrowroot biscuits, of course!

Interestingly, when telling my sister recently that I thought perhaps I’d write about our family ritual of sharing cups of tea  accompanied by Milk Arrowroot biscuits, she shared her own memory of our grandmother suggesting she try the customary practice of introducing a milk arrowroot softened with milk to her daughter when she was making the transition to solid foods. 
Perhaps this is when we become addicted to the delightful if dubious practice of dunking Milk Arrowroot biscuits! 
 
Throughout my life a particularly deep and meaningful question has always arisen when having Milk Arrowroot biscuits with a cup of tea in public – to dunk or not to dunk!  Our family across generations has been one which accepted and thoroughly enjoyed the ritual of dunking.  We were, however, advised and well aware that we were not to dunk our biscuits when out in public!

I became impossibly sad recently at the thought that, as a 70+ year old spinster without children,  it is quite unlikely anyone will bring me a cup of tea with milk arrowroot biscuits to waken me when I am snuggling up in bed ever again.  It certainly hasn’t happened for a long time.  The last time was possibly in 2009 when my then 96 year old mother wheeled a cup of tea and two Milk Arrowroot biscuits balanced on the seat of her wheely walker into my bedroom at her unit, greeting me warmly to welcome the day.  It is a very special memory of her I will always treasure.

Many of the beloved human beings who shared the ritual drinking and dunking of Milk Arrowroot biscuits with me over time have passed on.  These days, the closest I get to being on the receiving end of a similar ritual is, when in hospital, I hear a tea trolley in the corridor and not long after am courteously asked, ‘Madam, would you like a biscuit with your cup of tea?’
 
Beverley Lee
2018-2019
(Prepared for 'Family Ritual' initially, then presented for another session drawing on items from our Ideas Piggy Bank, in this case imagine two Milk Arrowroot biscuits!)

Comments are closed.
    'Our Stories'
    Picture

    Bev's stories

    As I look through the stories I've written since setting up the memoir writing group some years ago, it seems quite a number of  my stories reflect on my experience of aging! 

    Stories

    All
    2020'
    A Bed Time Story - 'The Little Wallaby'
    'A Childhood Memory'
    'Advice'
    A Friendship Tested
    Alexander Theatre
    'A Love Letter To Travel'
    'A Test Of Courage'
    'Aunts And Uncles'
    'Car Stories'
    'Car Story
    'Causes'
    Claire Bowditch
    'Cockles And Mussels'
    'Community'
    "Cringe"
    'Dear Unfinished Business'
    'Deja Vu'
    'Election Day 2022'
    'Experiencing The Unexplained'
    'Faking It'
    Family Ritual
    'Family Treasures'
    'Fear Of Failure
    'Fiesta Of Festivities'
    'Fish Out Of Water'
    'For Better For Worse'
    Gliding
    Grandparents
    'How I Came Here'
    'I Broke It'
    'If Only!'
    'I Grew Up In...'
    'I Quit'
    'I Was There'
    Jack Manuel
    'Lost And Found'
    Lost In Music
    'Making Waves'
    'Memoir Review'
    Molyullah Sports
    'Monash Modern Dance Group
    Monash University
    'New In Town'
    'Once'
    'On The Job'
    'Paulie Stewart'
    'Peter And The Wolf'
    'Precious Objects'
    'Rebellion'
    'Right Here
    Right Now'
    'Rise And Shine - Waking Up To Milk Arrowroot Biscuits)
    'Running With Scissors'
    'Shaped By Childhood'
    'Stock And Land'
    'The Music Of My Madrid'
    'The Separator Room'
    'The Sky's The Limit'
    TheSydney Tunnels
    'Things I've Left Behind'
    'This (...) Life'
    'This (Time Travelling) Life'
    'Three Wise Monkeys'
    Time
    'Too Hard Basket'
    'Travel Tales'
    'Trees'
    'Trigger'
    'What Happens In Vegas'
    'What I Was Wearing'

    Twitter ....

    @Lee_Bev

    Links

    Coping with Criticism (ie editing!)

    Hannie Rayson memoir interview video link

    The subconscious mind and the creative writing process

    Writing Historical Fiction

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Attribution:

    Image--copyright Mary Leunig; owned by Beverley Lee; permission to use Mary Leunig.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay our respects to their elders - past, present and emerging.
Picture
News
​Newsletter
Facebook Page
​
Program Suggestions
​CO-VID Safety

U3A Benalla & District Flier 2023
​Membership Application/Renewal Form 
​
Program Guide 2023
Semester 1 Timetable with Dates 2023
Semester 1 Timetable Month Overview 2023
Developed and maintained by members, this website showcases U3A Benalla & District. 
​Photographs - U3A members; Benalla Art Gallery website; ​Weebly 'Free' images;Travel Victoria and State Library of Victoria