On Friday, my sons’ middle school held its annual Career
Fair. Monica Smiley, editor-in-chief of Enterprising Women magazine, and I
presented three joint sessions on what it’s like to be a publisher and an
author. We squished a great deal of information into those 35-minute sessions
and still allowed time for Q&A. All our attendees were seventh-graders, and
Monica and I were pleased to see them so full of intelligent questions.

Saturday afternoon, I made a presentation at a new teahouse
in downtown Raleigh, V’s Teas & Treasures. While guests enjoyed a full tea,
I spoke on "The 232nd Anniversary of the Wilmington Ladies Tea
Party."

Wilmington Ladies Tea Party? During a visit to Wilmington,
North Carolina, in 1775, Scotswoman Janet Schaw kept a journal. Discovered in
the early twentieth century and made available in book form as Journal of a
Lady of Quality, this journal has given historians a tantalizing, rare view of
the American Revolution seen through the eyes of a Loyalist woman. The famous
Boston Tea Party was the first of many "tea parties" celebrated
throughout the colonies. The patriot ladies of Wilmington held their own tea
party sometime in the first quarter of 1775. But had Janet Schaw not commented
on it in her journal, we’d never have known about it. Unlike the Edenton Ladies
Tea Party several months earlier, highly publicized and even lampooned in
London, the sister event in Wilmington drew no press coverage.

V’s Teas & Treasures, located at the corner of Glenwood Drive and Peace Street, is a must-see,
must-do. The vintage Victorian-era house has been restored and decorated with
love and a tremendous sense of comfort and coziness by owner Vivian Nicolsen
Holt. There are two tearooms, both seating about fifteen guests, and nooks and
crannies throughout the house filled with arts and crafts, jewelry, antiques,
teas, coffees, edible goodies, soaps, fragrances, and home accents. But don’t
take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. Oh, and did I mention that the
full tea is scrumptious?