THE OLD TABLE

We had a simple dinner this evening. We sat around the “kitchen table” that has been in constant use since we have been together, nearly 20 years, and before that by my family since 1940.

From 1940 until the 1980’s, it was where the meals were served on the farm, at least three per day (it was the custom to have “lunch,” the fourth meal, at 4:00 in the afternoon since it was late by the time the milking was done at night). There weren’t many celebratory meals, that was not the way things were done. Mostly, just hearty food, ordinary meals.

It is beginning to show its age, nearly 80 now. The top has a bit of a crack, it has been refinished multiple times, the last when Linda stripped several coats of paint and refinished it when we were in San Carlos. A ceiling lamp fixture fell on it and left a divot. The chairs are needing repair. There is a metaphor there, probably, as I approach my mid 70’s.

Do people retain, repair, reuse the objects of daily life today? I’m not familiar with others, but not many drive a nearly 20-year-old car, either. We read about the government employees that were not paid and suffered during the recent shut down, and I wondered why none of them had enough ready cash savings to withstand a financial setback.

The average Federal worker makes $84,000 per year. Many, I assume, are two-paycheck families, as is the way Americans operate today. But no food? Not able to pay for daily living for a few weeks?

Wonder how many of them have ancient tables and old cars?

That is a real “old fuddy-duddy” thing to wonder about, isn’t it?