Kitchen Table

The kitchen table is often a gathering place in many homes. This is true at my mother’s house, as you can always find her sitting there. She spends a lot of time there, and I suspect the reason is that she can’t stand any of the things her husband watches on television. If I go to visit her, I know just where to find her, and I know that if I stay, I’ll be sitting there with her. This has always been the way things go there, and I imagine it will be that way for a long time to come.

My mother hasn’t been to my house many times because it’s a long driver for her. However, the first time she did make it up, she was dismayed to find that I didn’t have a kitchen table. I have one, but it’s usually covered with bills, clean clothes, or whatever crafts my daughter has been doing that day. We rarely eat at my kitchen table, so it’s never really clean and spotless. There are always reasons to use it for something else, and the biggest reason is space.

My place is small, and my kitchen table is actually in what should be the dining room. It’s not a dining room though; it’s just a small extension of the kitchen. This is the only place where one might put a kitchen table, and due to lack of space, I have to use it to fold laundry and as a catchall for whatever comes in the house that day. She told me she’d come visit more when I have a proper kitchen table for her to use, though I know she is only kidding. It’s a long running family joke about my mom and her table, and she loves to play along.

If your kitchen table is more of a gathering place than anything else, you may know what I am talking about. It doesn’t matter where you meet up, as long as you do. Even though we don’t really eat there now, I know one day we will. Sometimes the amount of space you have dictates how you do things. My mother understands this, but it doesn’t stop her from asking me if I have gotten my kitchen table cleaned off each time she calls. One day, I think I might do it just to surprise her, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll even buy a tablecloth.

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