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Post by Brikatw on Mar 16, 2006 12:29:39 GMT 12.75
Miss Kathy's Kitchen Table sits in the middle of the kitchen. It's covered with a table cloth and place matts, has flowers in a vase in the center. The neat thing about this kitchen table is that it['s always got some sort of goodie set out to go with a cup of good strong coffee. It sees alot of action during meal times but to be honest, the best times are after dinner, when the kids are gone to sleep and we all sit around yaking and sipping the coffee. When the pot gets low, just go ahead and make another pot. The cups are in the cupboard above the coffee pot and the fixings are right there next to the pot. By Miss Kathy's rules, Help yourself, she'll get you the first cup but after that, your on your own. ;D ;D ;D
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 16, 2006 13:00:57 GMT 12.75
Thank you for the coffee, Miss Kathy. You're so kind. Oh, your kitchen table looks so nice. How do you ever find the time? I haven't seen my table in ages. There's always a batch of noodles drying, some bread dough rising, or pies waiting to go in the oven on it. When it's not that, it's kids homework or stuff we've drug in from outside and want to keep handy just in case someone asks me for it. But, somewhere in the middle of the mess is a potted plant and a bowl of fresh fruit. It wasn't always like that. I had a lot better example set for me as a girl. Guess I'm just getting tired and letting a lot of things backslide until the kids move out and I can get caught up.
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 16, 2006 23:04:43 GMT 12.75
A hot cup of fresh brewed coffee, the morning paper...chores are done, the sun is shining in from the east, just peaking over the barn...the rooster crows one last time for the day..breakfast is done but the smell of sausage or fried up bacon still lingers mixing with the aroma of that coffee.......
The kitchen table used to be the hub of the home...most meals were made and eaten there...life and living were discussed..plans and dreams born and sometimes carried out...games played, home work done...broken hearts mended or at least eased...stories told and memories made...those were the days....
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Post by Paws on Mar 17, 2006 3:55:24 GMT 12.75
my kitchen table is an island covered with junk. My dining room table is covered with junk and dust. My counter bar is covered with junk. Haven't had a meal in this house not on the couch in jprobably five years.
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 17, 2006 9:41:28 GMT 12.75
Oh, you make me feel better. Seems like we eat a lot of our meals off the couch, too. The table is more of a work bench than anything else. When someone drops by, we just push stuff out of the way or set it all on the floor so we can talk, play cards or whatever.
I just stepped out and did the "inventory" from my table.
Let's see.... mail & coupons from the past five month, someones dirty sock, the alternator from one of the tractors, five pounds of bean seed, a couple of shriveled up apples, 20# of 5-10-40 fertilizer, the worm from the meat grinder, gum wrappers, a pad of checks from an account we closed over a year ago, a handful of dirt, the daughters make-up, four shoe boxes of various garden seed, dried up orange peels I had the kids save so I could chop them up for the spice drawer, a rolling pin & wax paper (from the last time I made pies), the sewing machine & a bolt of fabric I was going to make winter curtains with last October, a couple of empty beer cans & soda bottles, our euchre deck, all my teacher's manuals, two boxes of deer slug, three pieces of black cherry lumber, patterns for the boys next woodworking project, a roll of toilet paper, dryer lint, and a can of air freshener.
Yep!! It's all present and accounted for! ;D ;D Glad nobody took anything. Or worse than that, moved something!
Still, Miss Kathy does a wonderful job!
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Post by pwrwgnlady on Mar 18, 2006 1:22:26 GMT 12.75
Hello, this is Miss Kathy.A warm welcome to all who stop in. Sorry , but the truth needs to be told...... I have not seen my kitchen table uncluttered for quite sometime. Fishing lure making stuff is scattered all over it. Luckily, poor Addison has a highchair ........(I'm a proud Grandma!!! ) Come Christmas or Thanksgiving, I redistribute, or hide, all the junk and it almost accomodates our rapidly expanding family. Just save a few bones please for Shadow and some turkey for the cats.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 18, 2006 4:06:14 GMT 12.75
My kitchen table doesn't have a lot of stuff on it and looking across the room at it. It makes me a little sad.
The table at my Mom and Dad's house is just like the one that was always at my Granny and Grandaddy's house. It was kept clean at all times out of neccessity. It was in almost constant use throughout the day.
When I was a kid, the whole world revolved around Granny's kitchen table. Any plans made for improvements around the farm, fishing trips, hunting trips, vacations, adventures, you name it; those plans were made right there. I'd see grandaddy in there pouring over bills, the almanac, and the morning paper.
If someone was getting married, buried, birthday'd, or celebrated in any way, it was done with a gathering around the table. Holidays; Granny's table.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week were served on that table for many years. It was not at all acceptable to pull out the old TV trays. More often than not, those meals would be enjoyed by friends as well as family. There was a constant stream of activity coming and going around the farm; workers, salesmen, veterinary helpers, delivery men, customers, and lots of hunting and fishing buddies and members of the church.
There were hardly ever any times that you could go into that house and not find that old table in use.
Now that Grandaddy's passed on and Granny's way up there, she's living with my folks and it's like that now at Mom and Dad's table. Constant activity. If I had kids, they'd see the same things I did at my Granny's table then, at my Momma's table today.
Never having married and never being home. My table will never know the importance of the role it's predecessor's played in the running of our family. It sits there, uncluttered, but unused and gathering dust. It's a sad sight.
Thanks Brian.
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Post by Brikatw on Mar 18, 2006 4:17:46 GMT 12.75
No problem Toby, Anytime any of y'all want slide up a chair. If you can find room, toss a scrap over to the side and watch Matt and the dog wrestle for it. Then take Matt's chair . Nah, we'll all move over a bit and make room.
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 18, 2006 4:20:29 GMT 12.75
Hi Miss Kathy! Thanks again for the coffee. Isn't it good to know our men don't place too high of standards on themselves, and that we "donestic godesses" can tolerate their messes? ;D When I was a girl there was an elderly lady in our church who I thought kept the most spotless home on earth. One day, I stopped by to visit and asked her how on Earth she kept such a clean house with three grown sons still there and a husband who was a packrat. I wanted her tips. She took me into the kitchen and opened the oven. There were the dirty dishes. She proceeded to take me around the house and show me all the "magic curtains" that hid the rest of the mess. The biggest surprise was a trap door in the living room floor. When she saw someone coming up the lane, she's toss everything down to the basement. I'd hate to see what it looked like down there! Sounds like Shadow and the cats are like our critters. Last year I threw the turkey carcass in the yard and you've never seen such a growling, cat-scratching fight in all your days! Ruthie, our dog, came out on top. But not before our little black tomcat tried to rip off her ears.
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Post by Paws on Mar 18, 2006 4:36:12 GMT 12.75
Sounds like a book to me Toby; at least a John Denver style CW song! ;D
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 18, 2006 4:57:44 GMT 12.75
Now that you mention it, I bet I could write a song about Granny's kitchen table. I hadn't thought of all that my little oak table was missing out on until Brian brought it up.
You ever go to antique stores and look at those really old tables and wonder how much laughter and tears occurred over that old polished wood? Same as when I walk into old farm houses and such, I wonder what the walls have seen.
I do that too when I look at really old oak trees and try to imagine the things they witnessed.
I should probably see a shrink!
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 18, 2006 5:31:11 GMT 12.75
Same as when I walk into old farm houses and such, I wonder what the walls have seen. I do that too when I look at really old oak trees and try to imagine the things they witnessed. I should probably see a shrink! You don't need to see a shrink, Toby. It just means you're a thinking man! Our present abode was built about 1845. I wish our attic could talk. I went up there last fall and noticed that every teenage boy that's ever lived here must have taken his girl up there. The rafters are covered with inscriptions like "Frances & Elizabeth, 1863", "Louis & Margaret, 1891", "Louis & Edna, 1892", "Clifford & Dorothy, 1947", "Leonard & Eugenia, 1977". Last year, I started doing some minor renovations. It was amazing to see little samples here and there of every wallpaper or paint that has ever been used. I even found writing on the walls with the date and name of each resident that made changes. As for the old oak tree, we have one just off our porch. In the old papers for the farm, the planting of that tree is document. It was planted in 1868 buy two brothers whose dad (Frances, mentioned above) had just passed on. It is said that the sapling was planted on Christmas Day. Not a time to be planting trees in Ohio. The widow Elizabeth spent the rest of her days sitting by the growing tree crying. Legend has it that her tears kept it watered and her will to see her husband again made it live. I've heard of many school socials, weddings, wakes, and family reunions taking place under it's shade. There's even a clause in the deed to this property that states that this tree cannot be cut down, except with the OK of a direct descendant of that family. We really caused a community upheaval when we moved in and had the 135 year old tree trimmed for the first time in its life to avoid a power line. They all thought we should have called the power company to have the line moved!
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Post by Brikatw on Mar 18, 2006 8:55:56 GMT 12.75
My Parrents house was built in 1852. As renovations and repairs went on through the years, little things were found here and there that were left from some of the previous residents just as Miss Faith's house has. That house was supposed to be haunted and though it made lots of bumps in the night I think anyone really saw anything to say it was. The biggest thing I remember was laying in bed one night and feeling the whole house shake with the wind.
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 18, 2006 10:01:58 GMT 12.75
Our old house is still fairly solid. There's not much shaking with the wind. Our problem is the whole front side has slipped off the sill and the house is settling in the center. We just make sure all the pipe jacks are kept adjusted. There's about a 12" slope from each of the exterior walls to the center of the house. So, when you walk through the house, you're not only walking up and down hill, but also sideways. When I feel a bump in the night, I just make sure we haven't fallen into the cellar! ;D
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 19, 2006 12:11:43 GMT 12.75
Faith, did you sign the wall of that attic for you and your hubby? That's a great story about that old tree too! The stories it could tell would probably fill a library.
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 19, 2006 13:18:36 GMT 12.75
We decided that we'd do that when we move out. We will eventually since we're only living here as part of Mike's employment agreement. He takes care of the cows and they let us stay here for nothing, give us just enough $$ for food and pay the utilities. I don't know if you could call us "squatters", "share croppers" or "indentured servants". But one of them's got to fit us for the time being. I cringe every time I think about him loosing or quitting his job and the day we have to re-enter the "real" world.
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Post by pwrwgnlady on Mar 20, 2006 3:17:14 GMT 12.75
Thanks to everyone for dropping in.It's a good day for an endless pot of coffee here, rainy and dreary.I haven't been on much the past few days. I finished one of my craft projects, a baby blanket that was made out of 180 small squares sewed together and then 2 rows of edging.Addison got the first one I made and loves it.Believe me, my hands tell me this one was the last like that I'll make. Got to vaccum up some mess today,Mandy and Addison should be home sometime today, I think.Then it'll be back to Grandma babysitting .I love being her Grandma.......
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 20, 2006 4:43:49 GMT 12.75
;D Congratulations, Miss Kathy on getting the blanket finished! I know how much work goes into that kind of thing. I started making a "yo-yo" blanket for our first born when I was pregnant with her. It's still not done and she is now 15! Maybe by the time I have grandbabies I'll get it done. For the boys blankets, I tried learning crochet. Both of those efforts ended up so crooked and puckered that the only thing they were good for was dog mats! I'll help with the tidying up for a little while, but I've got a mess that I need to tackle too. Remind me to stop by the store and pick up some Pine Sol, trash bags and a corn broom.
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Post by Brikatw on Mar 20, 2006 6:30:06 GMT 12.75
Y'all women folk do so many things the hard way. Skip the broom and go for the leaf blower and instead of a vacume get out the high pressure air hose from the shop. It's 60 ft long and there is another if that aint long enough....... ;D Besides, it fun to watch the cats get stuck to the ceiling..... ;D ;D ;D
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 20, 2006 10:15:01 GMT 12.75
Faith, don't forget to stop by the store and pick up some pine sol, trash bags, and a corn broom.
You're welcome! ;D ;D ;D
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