Around the Table Now

When I was a child we always had our Sunday meal with my Grandpa & Grandma Lehman and all of our aunts and uncles and cousins after morning church services. My grandparents had retired to a large house in Sheldahl, Iowa from the farm. All the ladies would be in the kitchen cooking, the men in the parlor area talking. All of the kids would be running around outside or over at the school yard playground across the street. I was the eldest child so it was my duty to look after all my younger siblings and cousins. When Grandma would call us in for our meal, I would take all the kids into the bathroom to wash their hands. Then we'd all join hands in our prayer. The adults would all set around the large round table in the dinning room area. All of us kids would get the chair Grandpa Lehman had made for us with our name off it's peg and set it around the table set up for us in the pantry area. I never got to set at the adult table while Grandma Lehman was alive. She died when I was 14 years of age from a brain tumor. We children always had a good time laughing and talking around our own special table and sitting on our own special chairs. After our meal and the dishes done, we would all go to the parlor and sing songs. This was a very musical family. My grandpa played a harmonica, I played piano, my uncle Howard played a fiddle, and would would all join in with our voices. I so loved these song sessions.

After Grandma's passing, grandpa would come to our house for his Sunday meal. Sometimes one or two of the aunts would come with their family as well. Then we would all set around my mother large dinning room table. Friends would come over during the week and have coffee and pie with us and visit around the kitchen table. The kitchen table was the heart of our home. This is where we played Canasta games or other board games. It was the place we did our homework. It was where we went when we wanted to talk over the day with our other family members.

Grandpa Lehman did remarry just before I got married. My family & I joined him and his new wife, Grandma Ruby as often as we could for meals and fun. He was 75 years of age when he eloped with Ruby. I sure got a laugh out of them over that. They had several happy years together fishing, traveling, and being together before ill health forced them to a Care Center.

I also gathered around my Grandpa & Grandma Tweedt's table on the farm and later on where Grandpa retired from farming in their Huxley, Iowa home. My Children loved to visit their great-grandpa Tweedt. Grandma had passed away while they were too young to remember her as well. Grandpa Burney had such a loving heart and so enjoyed being with his grandchildren and families. Grandma Clara also loved her family being around her table. She was a good cook and also had a wonderful sense of humor. I remember much laughter and love around her table.

When I married, another large dinning room table became a part of my life. This table was the table of my wonderful in-laws, Earl and Anna Love. We would go here for holidays and all of Jay's brothers and family would gather around that table. Jay had two older brothers and one that was 10 years younger. Our children would always set around this table and not be separated from the adults like I was in my childhood years. There was so much love and laughter around this table. When Jay's oldest brother, Chuck & his wife Kathy, were lost to us in a car accident the table seemed bare for awhile. Soon new members joined the family to help fill that vacancy. These young voices helped heal.

Then came the time when my in-laws grew older that it was my dinning room table that was the table of choice for holiday meals and just family get together meals. My dinning room table was where we ate all of our meals. There were many times when my kids were busy growing up that meals got cold due to all the chatter and laughing at that table. It to was where the children did their homework, played games, decorated Christmas cookies, dyed Easter eggs, made model cars and airplanes, and just had fun being together as a family unit.

I have a new home, a new dinning room table now. Still it is where we all join for our family meals. I have a kitchen bar where Jay & I eat our daily meals. My dining room table is where my friends and I set to talk and drink coffee or iced tea.

When I was small, my grandma's family would all get together along with all of the families merging. My grandmother had five sisters and one brother. So this was a larger gathering with a what I called church tables set up about the home of whoever was hosting. These were special Christmas or Summer meetings. It was so much fun with so many aunts, uncles, cousins of every sort and the food was plentiful and wonderful. In the summer there was always home-made ice-cream and fireworks.

Now I share tables with children's families. Times have changed, but the love and laughter around the table remains the same. Many people who have been around the table have passed on, but many new little faces have joined us as well.

I remember once at Dad & Dorothy's table when they lived in the Enchanted Forrest area near Magnolia, Texas a funny happening. On the brick ledge outside of their window was a large snake sunning itself. The table was set next to the window. I spotted the large snake and told Dad that I didn't know if I could eat with that snake right there staring at me. He moved my chair around so that it was facing away from the snake saying that was a much easier way of handling the situation then bother that snake. We all got a big laugh out of that. My kids thought was the funniest thing!

They so loved being with Grandpa & Grandma Texas and any table was special to them if Grandpa & Grandma Texas was there whether it be a picnic table in a park or a blanket on the Galveston beach. So many wonderful memories fill my mind and heart of them with my kids. My dad taking them out for ice cream, taking them to get more water or musk melon, just talking to them as they were equal and not young children.

It matters not how fancy or how big the table or home. What matters is the people and the love that is there with you.