Memories

I decided this week to give the dining table a new lease of life, and so in between visits to stumbledupon - thank you Judit, I have been scraping away the 30 yr old patina of grime, scratches and marks that represent a family history. They say that a family that eats together stays together. That may or may not be true but I like to think that my kids have grown up to be well balanced, social individuals, who still see the pleasures and benefits of eating together as a family, sitting down at a table.

I don't much care for TV dinners. Inevitably the TV takes over and food simply becomes a fuel, rather than the aesthetic delight that a properly presented meal should be. The dining table is a place to meet and talk and to share ideas and feelings.

This particular table has played host to people from the far corners of the globe. Being sociable people and having a large house as well as being in education has led to a vast number of house guests over the years. Sweat and grease from the skins of Canadians, new Zealanders, Japanese, Americans, Africans, Germans, French, Hungarians and more, has at one time or another adorned the wood of this item of furniture, and now as i scrape it away with painstaking trouble, i recall each and every one of them. Some I remember very well and a few have faces that are fading away with the passing of time.

It has not only been used for meals. The children would drape blankets over it and use it as a hideout. When older it served as a table tennis table as well as supporting a snooker table. It has been used for pasting wall paper and an examination paper marking surface. people have laughed a lot and cried a little at this table and it has moved house twice.

So now it is bared and covered in scrapings and I have to attempt to restore its surface to a long forgotten former glory. I hope that if any reader has sat at this table that they remember it with fondness.