The Kitchen Table
by Shirl Scott
(Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA)
The kitchen table was nothing special, just an aged lemon colored laminate top placed on a bent metal frame with 5 broken, unmatched chairs and one worn out wooden bench placed around it. It had been a hand-me-down from other family members to the point all had lost recollection of who owned it first.
Some folk today might consider it to be an antique, but for the Irby family, it was the “happening place.” It not only served as where all 12 of us ate, where Daddy held family Bible study, where we all told stories, and did our homework; but it was where everyone knew to go to view daily and weekly events.
As the tasks increased one right after another, Mother would scramble for a pencil and note pad. With a family of 8 children and 4 adults, notebook paper and writing utensils were generally not easily found. Because of this, the laminate kitchen table served as Mother’s official day keeper.
Once finally found she would proceed towards the kitchen table with her pencil in hand and begin to scribble down exactly what she needed to remember at that moment.
For Example;
#1 Send lunch money to school next Monday with Dennis, Shirley Jean, David, and Edward.
#2 Field trip money due this Friday for Patricia Ann, Rhonda Sue, and Donna Kaye.
#3 French braid Carmen Annette’s hair before school Thursday morning for picture day.
#3 Pick and shuck 24 ears of corn for creamed corn tonight.
#4 Bake cake Saturday for the Sunday Social…..
and the list would grow into greater length and detail as the weeks or month transpired. Then as quickly as the notes appeared, a dish cloth would whisk the old notes away only for new ones to emerge the following day.
Without Mother’s information provided on the table top, protected at every meal with the red checkered tablecloth, the family would have been lost.
The old table also served many other purposes. As mentioned it was here where we all ate together as a family laughing and sharing our daily events. It was here where all homework was completed under the guiding hands of our parents. It was also here where family Bible studies were conducted by my father and each and every person present was inspired by God’s word and prayer.
Here my father and mother sat every morning for 50 years, drinking their morning coffee and watching the squirrels and birds consume the walnuts or food left behind by the night time visitors; the raccoons. It was here my father left us to go home to be with Jesus.
The lemon colored laminate table has experienced all the Irby laughter, sorrow and tears. And day after day, the family has gathered around and grown older, stronger, and larger in quantity with friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, future husbands, future wives and bountiful supplies of grandchildren.
We still check it frequently for Mother’s lists to stay abreast of all Irby activities, knowing without it we would be lost regarding our growing families events.
Just like the aged laminate table, the Bible consists of direction involving every daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly event for all of our lives. It has experienced all our laughter, sorrow, growth, and pain if we have chosen to sit around it. Without its direction, we would not be aware of what is happening within the body of Christ nor within our own personal lives.
Visit it daily. Review what is written upon the aged pages which have experienced the knowledge of time, tried and true, and still holding strong the family unit. Scribble it upon the table top of your hearts.
“Keep my commandments, and thou shalt live: and my law as the apple of thy eye: Bind it upon thy fingers, and write it upon the tables of thy heart.” Proverbs 7: 2-3 KJV
