A page has turned in our house!!! Kind of makes me sad??

It really is a simple thing but it really made me think today. Since my wife is recovering I did some house work today while being handy if she needed anything. Our dogs stay in the kitchen most of time as it is easiest room to keep the floor clean. So it gets swept and mopped 3-4 times each week. Nothing new there. So today while I was moving the kitchen table she asked me to just take the last leaf out of it. It is a long table with rounded ends. It has 3-4 removable leaves in it. This kitchen is not as big as the one on the home place so we only had one leaf in it. It still was "big" for our kitchen. So now it is just a simple round table. Maybe 50 inches around. Four chairs instead of the "normal" 6-8. It does make more room in the kitchen and makes cleaning it easier.


We do not have the whole family over to this house as we still usually go to the home place to where my son lives for get togethers now. Which is what we planned as my wife is just not able to do the big gatherings anymore. We go and she has a good time but we do not have the work of making it all come together.


So now my life has come a full circle. My first wife and I started out married life with a very small table. Just room for two to eat on. Then as the kids came along and grew we added this larger table. It will seat 12 people with all the leaves in it. It was that large for a lot of years too. It seemed like the kids and their friends kept it full for many years. Then the Grand Kids came along and they filled it once more. Now that had changed once again. We are back at a small table again.


The table does not look as grand as it was in all it's stretched out glory. It looks smaller and less vital now. I feel it is mirroring our lives in a way. It is just a table but is it????????????????????????????


It is just a cheap imported table that we could afford at the time. It is oak but it is not valuable in any way other than sentimentally. It has witnessed a lot of the high and lows of our lives. I was setting at that table when my first wife told me about her cancer. She left a cigar wrapped in blue paper by my plate the night she told me our youngest son was on his way. I have signed countless documents on that table. From buying/selling equipment to financing the farm. There has been many a family meal at that table where my children told us about their day or later about us becoming Grand Parents. I have set many a night at that table with tears running down my face after my first wife died when I just could not hardly find the will to go on. I asked my second wife to marry me while she set at that table after we cleaned up after a family meal. I see her every morning setting there taking her meds while drinking coffee. Lots of flash backs setting there.


So it really is more than just a table. It is kind of witness to our normal everyday life. It will NEVER leave this house while I still breath. I have too many memories setting there.

Much more. It is the platform for discussions, the focus of food preparation, the thousands of meals were served, and probably many small mechanical things were fixed on its historic surface. I get misty thinking about the table in my brothers house and its history. Jim

You know better than most, then , just what power that coming together around that table has had in your life so far. By taking out the leaves, now it is just the right size that you can sit on one side and your wife on the other and reach out and join your hands in prayer. With the power of God and that small table and your prayers while holding hands once a day , you both can beat this heart problem. My prayers go out to both of you as many others on here have done and continue to do. God Bless you both. RB

JD Seller, Well stated! I had really never thought of it that way, but you are right, the kitchen table at one time was the center of the entire house. Although there was a "den" "family room",or living room, in most rural homes, life gravitated around the kitchen table, for most of the reasons you mentioned. When we bought this doublewide in 01, my wife fell in love with the dining suite that they had on display and bought it. The table that witnessed our children's teen age years and beyond is still in the dining room of the old house. We were down to a few mismatched chairs which was the main reason we replaced it. Thanks for the post, that's something to think about.

I still have the original small square table, probably about three feet by five feet with drop down leafs on each end, that I bought when I got married back in 1970. Not many meals were ever eaten from it as we usually sat in a chair watching TV. Got rid of the wife in 2000 and kept the table. It has survived seven moves over the years and I haven't sat down at it in twenty five years. Mostly just used it to set stuff on. It has been in a shed for the last six years. I had to move it a few days ago and when I did, I looked at it and thought of all the bad memories associated with it over the years. Almost put it in the dumpster and then thought I better keep it for awhile longer in case someday I might need it. When I move again, it will probably not go with me.

Yes, JD, when you get our age it kinda comes down to a collection of memories and mementos, stuff that reminds us of the chapters of our lives, and the people and things that are part of the nearly-finished book.

Here’s my table: my dad built this back in the 30s, before I was born, for his sister. It’s made of red cedar, and like yours, it can handle two or three leaves. I got it when my aunt died about 40 years ago and have used it since. Many happy meals and some sad, serious discussions. Unlike yours, mine is now a table for one---it’s just me now. I hope it’s a long, long time before yours becomes one-sided.

I’m inordinately sentimental and nostalgic about the things I grew up with and around, and I have managed to hang on to the equivalent of a small museum of things that belonged to my parents and great-grandparents. For instance, visible on the left in this photo is a wooden church pew that my dad sat on every Sunday for more than 40 years. I sat there quite a few times myself. This bench was originally in a country school before it, with its mates, was moved to the church. I estimate it was built in the 1870s.

JD:

I know your feelings all too well. I have the Dining Table that I grew up with; and like yours, it is a huge table, but ours only has 3 leaves. Ours was always in the Den, even though we had an actual Dining Room (small) adjoining the Kitchen. Mom passed in 2001 and we buried her on Dads 91st Birthday. Dad died the day after his 92nd Birthday, litterally of a broken heart. Mom & Dad had been married for 58 years, and she was the love of his life. In 2003 when my Sisters & I closed out their Estate, amongst other things, the Table had been Willed to me.

Unfortunately, working in the Mining Industry necessitated that I have portable housing, so I live with my Bambi Goat in a 40 ft. 5th-wheel trailer with a tip-out, and there is just no place big enough to put that table. So it has been disassembled, carefully wrapped, along with the 6 large heavy Captains Chairs and put into storage. My biggest problem now is who do I WILL it to; other than Bambi Goat, I have no living family of my own. A lot of memories go with that table.


Doc :>)

I inherited my Aunt and Uncles table. They lived in town but it was the "go to place". My Aunt could put a cup of coffee and a sandwich in your hand faster than any fast food outlet. Lots and Lots of memories and many hands of euchre were played on that table. Rich in sentimental value.

beautiful story,,,,never thought about it till this morning,,,read your touching story,,,sat down at the table with a cup of coffee,,and thought of coloring easter eggs at the table with my little girl,,,we have done it at that table 22 times,,she still colors eggs with us every year at the same table,,,She knows how much we like it and we havent given up the tradition yet,,,looking at the kitchen table now,,,21 jars of relish,,I must carry them down to the shelves.I never realizes how much life centers around a kitchen table,Thanks for the beautiful story and the enlightment!

We are entering the tail end of the grandkid stage. My oldest grandchild just got her drivers license and first job. One more year of high school and she's off to vet school. For a few years we had Sunday morning breakfast with the four grandkids that live here. Within a couple of years that tradition will be a cherished memory. When one thinks about it, the importance of the kitchen table in the social life of a family is mind boggling.

Great story ...... the saddest part of the story is untold, that being the fact that the family meal is disappearing from our culture. Family members all have their own lives it seems and are all heading off in different directions (or being delivered there) and as a result it's a "grab and run" system for what used to be maybe the most important part of the day in our lives.

Very good story. Thanks. Ron Mn

Great story!! Isn't it amazing how almost everything important happens around the kitchen table when you're a close family. Best wishes to you and your wife as you move forward.

I can identify with that for sure JD Seller. There are things like that table in your life that kindof store up memories for you. They remind you of how you survived the tough times and that no matter what happened the good memories are always still there and nothing or no one can take them away from you.

JD,
Know what you mean. My one home is an empty nest, has too many memories. I keep it for a few days out of the year when grand kids come over, stay the night and play in my arcade in basement. The rest of the time, it my office away from home, eat lunch there during the week. Also have a workshop there too.

Now I find my self spending more time elsewhere.

JD, I always enjoy your posts, especially when they revolve around the family and friends. This song by the Oak Ridge Boys came to mind when I read this. I hope you enjoy it.
Mamaa Table

Yep, know what you mean......I look around at things that I set great store by that means nothing to most others ([b:ed6627bde6]They [/b:ed6627bde6]didn't squeeze off the old Savage and harvest that first buck, but [b:ed6627bde6]I[/b:ed6627bde6] remember!). I guess you could call them 'touchstones' to days gone by. I am glad we have them but they ARE a sign of time moving on. [i:ed6627bde6]Bittersweet,[/i:ed6627bde6] I reckon.