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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Writer's Post: The Kitchen Table

In the 1960s, six of us crowded around our kitchen table for our nightly family dinner. As the youngest, I sat plastered against the wall but have come to like those wall seats. Mom cooked well done meat and soft vegetables, which were good until I tasted a rarer version of meat and greens that crunch.

Surrounded by bigger people, I learned to interrupt and speak loudly, two habits I've spent my lifetime trying to break. Talk usually focused around what the older kids were doing or something that didn't concern me, yet I liked being with my family.

I hated the milk Mom forced me to drink and am, no doubt, guilty of not pushing it on my kids. It never occurred to us to complain about the small table, our tiny shared room, or sitting shoulder to shoulder in the Chevrolet. Nor did I notice that my mother used half the required amount of sugar in her chocolate chip cookies. This made the chips especially good when we chewed them while sitting at the kitchen table. 




22 comments:

Theresa Mahoney said...

It's funny how when we get older we realize how small or unflavorful something was from our childhood, but we never noticed it then. I have often tried to give my kids the things I didn't have as a child, thinking that it would magically make their childhoods better, but I don't think they would notice or care if I left them out. What's important is the memories they take with them when they leave the house. Not how big their bedroom was or how many tv's we owned. It's the simple things that count.

Binky said...

Your family was much like mine. Four kids, and I'm the youngest by far. And about your age.

shelly said...

Love the pictures. Are you the baby?

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

mail4rosey said...

I remember Sunday meals like that at my grandma's, and I loved that time!!

Grace Grits and Gardening said...

We have a lot in common. I never liked milk either and we ate our childhood veggies either soggy from the can or fresh yet fried to death. Thanks for linking up! Talya

Unknown said...

Sounds similar to our family dinners - 6 crammed at the table (until my parents divorce) except I'm tied for the oldest kid! And we ate lots of casseroles - I never knew why until I had little kids and then realized that it was the easiest way to prep a meal!!

Lucy said...

Oh,quite a bit of this sounds so familiar and just like you, yuck on the milk :)

Lucy from Lucy's Reality

Tarang Sinha said...

Cute pictures!:)
Old photos bring sweet memories...isn't it?:)

Michelle Liew said...

Thanks for sharing how that kitchen table brought back many memories for you. For many of us, memories are created during dinner!

Masshole Mommy said...

It's funny, but we always do Christmas dinner at my nana's house and cram ourselves into seats at the table. There is barely room to move, but we make it work somehow.

Vandana Sharma said...

cute family

Pat Hatt said...

yeah it never really matters when you are a kid

Unknown said...

Stopping by from the Friday Hop. Love this post. I am the oldest of four kids. I imagine we have lots in common. The post is so nostaglic for me. It's amazing how Americans think bigger, bigger, bigger because when we were small we never noticed.
Happy Saturday!
Laurie
Lulu and Daisy

renae said...

Oh what a cute family photo. Yes, fireworks and summer holidays are a great combo. We also set off fireworks on New Years Eve, too. Silly Utah is a Fireworks state.

LA Botchar said...

I remember meals around my grandparents big country table in their big country kitchen. would not be unheard of to have 20 people around that table. And grandma was an amazing cook - you can bet nearly everything was from scratch. I definitely learned about "lively" dinner conversation around that table. but also a lot about love. and pie crust. that's very important!

An Apel a Day said...

Some great photos! Times sure have changes. They used to load kids in the car; now there's all the car seats that are mandatory. Kids used to share a room. They still sometimes do, but it's less common. I liked that people used to be able to entertain themselves. Now they have a room full of toys and parents hear, "I don't have anything to play with." What?

stevebethere said...

Love the family photo's Joyce, I always remember the overdone dinners too in my house I think it was the norm in them days, I noticed your hair is still similar heheh!

Have a nice Sunday

Hilary said...

what a beautiful family

I always hated meat because my mom made it so well done.... now I eat it so rare she can't look at it!

Mrsupole said...

Love those black and white pictures from back then but I guess that is pretty much all we had at that time. What is strange is that every night we had dinner with everyone at the table. Lots of fond memories of those times. Love your curly hair.

God bless.

Ramakant Pradhan said...

You have a beautiful family. It always feels so good to reflect back on those innocent days when we were kids. I too hated milk as a kid :)

Unknown said...

Lovely memories and lovely family!

Kathy
http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

Suzanne McClendon said...

I enjoyed your post and the family photographs!

I am the oldest of four - all of us born within 2 years and 11 months' time. :)

My little years were spent in a big (to me!) mill house. My bigger years were spent in a tiny trailer. We spent most of our time outside, so it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. What mattered was that we had a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and clothes on our backs. We knew Daddy would make sure we always had those things.

Great post! Have a great week. :)