Strawberries For Tea

A Memory of Buckhurst Hill.

Every year on my birthday my mother and father made June 21st. (or the closest Saturday) a very special day for me. Since I was old enough to remember I had strawberries on my birthday. However, that was not all. The day was a huge celebration at our house called "Ivy Cottage" on Epping New Road. All my aunties and uncles plus as many as fifteen childhood friends would come to my party.

Planning must have started weeks ahead. My Father would order the strawberries from a farmer in Wisbeach, Norfolk, as many as 35 pounds of them, in a number of flats. They came by goods-train to Enfield where Dad and I would go in the car to pick them up, just before the big day. On June 20th my aunties would help my mother clean and prepare the berries for the next day.

Early on my birthday, Dad and a few uncles who lived near would go down Brook Road and onto the edge of Epping Forest to set up a treasure hunt for for us children at the party later. Afer we had fun at that we'd play rounders and come back to enjoy a big strawberry tea with ice cream and of course a big home made cake. I'd open my presents and then later everyone went home.

My loving parents made every birthday of mine a happy memory, complete with strawberries. Although the parties continued until I was in my teens.
They were wonderful memories, even if there was a war on it seldom hindered my big day.
Denman Lalonde

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