Your Mother Is A Witch

Family members, friends, and sometimes strangers often came to our house for a "reading".  Then Mama served tea with the leaves in the cups.  Mama would softly say, "When you finish drinking your tea, turn your cup over in your saucer, and let it sit for a while."  After about two to five minutes Mama would have the person turn the cup back over, and she'd read the pictures the leaves formed. Sometimes only Mama and her guest(s) came in the kitchen to have tea-reading(s).  Mama seldom told me what she read, but I often overheard her conversations.  People could trust her with their secret joys and sorrows, but people put their business out themselves.  They told how Mama had correctly predicted events, analyzed problems, given advice, or told where people were who were missing, or animals were that were lost, or missing articles would be found.  News of her talent spread.  Phones in those days rang in each home for the same call, but you were supposed to listen to the number of rings that formed your phone's code in order to know if the call was for your house. There was no such thing as a private line, but people were supposed to be ethical.  As you have already guessed, neighbors "accidentally on purpose" picked up their phone receivers when the phone code was not their ring, and listened with all ears.  Frequently they would join in on your conversation without as much as an "excuse me".  They'd ask Mama to help them with a similar problem, so Mama began asking people to stop using the phone to talk about things they wanted to keep under the cover.