QUENCHING MY THIRST

I never was much of a water drinker when I was growing up. Our family used to keep a cold bottle of water in the refrigerator, and in the summers I would pour from it, but I really preferred to mix Kool Aid in it or just drink a coke. But the best thirst quencher for me by far has always been iced tea.

When we were very small, we had to drink a glass of milk before having the tea, so I would quickly drink it down so I could have my tea. I would put several spoonfuls of sugar in it, squeeze a slice of lemon in, and stir for half an hour to get all that sugar dissolved. How sweet it was, and how great it tasted, especially when I got down to the bottom of the glass with all that lemon flavored sugar still left!!

Nowadays, if you order tea in a restaurant in the South, you’re usually asked if you want sweet or unsweet. I always order unsweet and dump some Sweet’n’Low (not Equal or Splenda) in addition to the lemon. I feel almost sacrilegious doing this because most Southerners order the already-sweetened-with-sugar stuff. The reason is that they like sugar and don’t want to have to stir for thirty minutes. (I’m sure that I will hear from BJ on this since she makes her tea at home and sweetens it while it is warm so the sugar will dissolve quickly.)

When I played tennis, I had a famous concoction that I made to drink while I was playing the match. I filled my thermos jug up with ice and then poured a mixture of 1/3 tea, 1/3 lemon Gatorade, and 1/3 orange juice over the ice. I tried many different drinks on the tennis court, including water, but this one worked best for me and thus was my drink of choice for many years. Also, it was very popular with my tennis friends.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t particularly like water, but that has all changed with the bottled water we now drink at home. We had a choice of three different types and sampled all three before deciding on distilled water. There is nothing tastier to me now than to drink a glass of that ice cold water the first thing in the morning; I even take my pills with it. We get no iron or minerals from the distilled water, but I figure we get enough out to eat or otherwise, so I don’t consider that a problem.

However, I may have to go back to tap water exclusively. I read the other day that they have found all sorts of drugs in our drinking water, and I certainly don’t want to miss out on that!!!