Monday, October 6, 2014

Beware the jabberwock on Mad Hatter Day

Another character from Alice in Wonderland, celebrated at a bed and breakfast in Lakeside, Michigan.
Today, I discovered that it is Mad Hatter Day. How cool is that? Well, since I am Alice, I find it very cool. I am a big fan of Alice in Wonderland. In fact, one of the few poems that I have memorized is "Jabberwocky," although I think that is in Through the Looking Glass, not Alice in Wonderland.

When I was far younger than I am now, I had the opportunity to act in a play version of Alice in Wonderland. And, no, I was not cast in the role of Alice. Instead, I was cast in the role of the Queen of Hearts. That turned out to be a lot of fun. I got to say "Off with his head" and "Off with her head" a lot. Fortunately, no one ever actually became separated from his (or her) head.

Scene: Trial of the Knave of Hearts for stealing the tarts made by the Queen of hearts.
Queen to witness (the Duchess: What are tarts made of?
Duchess: Pepper mostly.
Queen: Wrong! Pepper leastly.
Duchess: But mine are pepper tarts. See for yourself. (she goes around the courtroom, displaying the pepper tarts to everyone. All sneeze with great gusto.)
Queen: Ahhhhh-chooooo! Off with her head!!!!

Scene: Croquet field
Queen (about a random playing card): Off with his head! Fetch the executioner!
(shortly later)
Queen (to another random playing card): Is his head off?
Random playing card: Well off, if it suits your majesty.
Queen: Good. Let's play croquet.

The Queen of Hearts also sentenced the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse to an eternal tea party for Murdering the Time. That was because they said that they were just "killing time." All they did was drink tea and not much else. The Dormouse mostly slept. The Dormouse was always sleepy. The kid who portrayed the Dormouse did look very sleepy pretty much all of the time. I guess that is called "type casting."

So it's now Mad Hatter Day. Maybe the Mad Hatter can get away from the tea party to do something else. Or maybe not.

At any rate, what else do I want to say in this happily meandering blog post? I love tea parties. What a lot of fun they are! I'll have one at any time of day, though not at any time of night. Unlike the Dormouse, I am not a big fan of sleeping in or near my teacup. So what about the concept of an eternal tea party? I'm not too sure about that!


5 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your post it makes me go back to a "few" years ago when I was younger. When I read Alice In wonderland it just made me want to be her and oh the creative thoughts that would come flooding my mind. I like the tea party idea.

Nathana Clay said...

I had a friend who put on a Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland Birthday/Tea party. They were all different characters. I thought that sounded like a blast! I could go for a tea party if it involved cake!

Alice Gerard said...

I'd be happy to invite both of you to a tea party, with, of course, cake!!!

Anna Maria Junus said...

I wrote a mad hatter post today too, so I'm going to go read the other mad hatter posts. Yours was great.

And now "Off with your head!"

Alice Gerard said...

ouch, lol.
p.s. thank you.