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While I didn't get cold, the first thing I did back at home was to heat a water bottle and make a pot of warm tea.
My obsession with drinking tea seemed strange to many, but in the mining town of Crow Hill, local aquifers had been contaminated with mining refuse and were not safe for drinking.
Our town thus got the water from a mountain stream, but that water, while clean of heavy metals and other contaminants couldn't be drunk safely without boiling. And one way to know whether they boiled water was to only ever drink tea, broth or small beer. My mother refused to give me, or my brothers, small beer, despite all our neighbors giving it to kids six and above. Tea or broth it was, in my family at least.
Never been fond of broth. It's just greasy water, if you ask me.
So tea it was,
