When I was a very little girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, I remember my Mama inviting her lady friends over for lunch. She didn't host a monthly event, but the ladies came to our house for a fancy luncheon several times a year. The dining room table was set with the good dishes from the china cabinet and several card tables with crisply pressed tablecloths were set up to seat the additional guests.

The ladies were most often the mothers of my friends from Sunday School and kindergarten. I can see Mama in a blue dress and pearls, hair freshly coiffed from the beauty parlor, entertaining flawlessly as she served chicken salad, tomato aspic, homemade biscuits and tall glasses of sweetened iced tea garnished with fresh mint and an orange slice.