Mention tea parties in the United States and two things come to mind, one being a social activity in which generally wealthy, older women get together and socialize over tea and cookies or other light snacks and the other being a protest against taxes such as the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773 or the more recent tea party protests against the out of control taxing and spending polices of the Obama Administration.

In a previous Hub I discussed the recent anti-tax tea party protests. In this Hub I want to discuss the social variety of tea parties.

Normally, men don't bother with tea parties as they are basically for women. The major exception is when a father, grandfather, uncle or little brother is invited by a little girl (the little girl being a daughter, granddaughter, niece or older sister) to join her and her dolls and teddy bears for a tea party where one obligingly pretends to drink imaginary tea from tiny toy cups.

However, there are exceptions to everything and a few months ago I was invited to a Sunday afternoon tea party at Tucson's upscale Hacienda del Sol Resort. This resort, which began as an exclusive private school for girls in the 1930s and sits in a secluded spot in the foothills north of the Rillito River, is an ideal location for a social event of this nature.

And how did I come to be invited to this nearly all female event? It certainly wasn't to cover the event for HubPages and I was rescued from being the ONLY male at the event by the appearance of one male delivery person and the husband of the hostess who was there at the request/order of his wife. One other lone male was also there but I don't know why as he was on the other side of the room and I didn't get to meet him. Oh, I was there because it was a charity fashion show in which my wife, who had been a part-time fashion model before I met and married her, was one of the volunteer models. Having sent in the requested $60 donation I decided I should at least take the opportunity to see my wife model. And I do like tea.

My wife works for a local hospice which, because of the high quality of care they provide, found themselves the recipients of donations along with the fee payments from grateful families of clients who had spent the last part of their lives at the hospice.  Needing a way to account for these unsolicited donations, the owners set up a non-profit foundation as a part of their operation.  The foundation uses its funds to underwrite educational workshops on grief and loss as well as providing travel stipends for out of town relatives whose financial circumstances would otherwise prevent them from visiting their dying relative at the hospice.

The event itself was well attended by what appeared to be three generation of women ranging from grandmothers to college age granddaughters. The other two men and I made up the balance of the guests.

My wife had to be there early so I arrived early with her and this allowed me to stroll around and and to reserve a spot at a table from where I could get a good view of my wife for pictures. I then had time to stroll around and take pictures.

The tea and cookies were good and I did get to see my wife model. Following the event we spent some time exploring the grounds.

My wife was, of course, happy to have had a chance to model again after having been away from it for nearly twenty years.

As for me, it was a pleasant Sunday afternoon diversion. However, unless and until I am invited by some future granddaughter to join her and her dolls for tea, I will leave going to tea parties to my wife.