Hand- Me- Down Table

Our dining room furniture is Duncan Phyfe and it belonged to my mother. I always loved it and she left it to me when she died. It has been the gathering place for many holiday meals and Sunday dinners. I can still see my dad sitting at the head of the table with uncles and grandparents all around the table. My mom always seemed to be the last one through the line so she and my aunts would usually sit with all the children at card tables and T.V. trays. My parents would have around 40 people for our holiday dinners. Wonderful memories!

Being as old as it is the table still looks pretty good. Several years ago the end of the table where my husband sits was really leaning. It's a drop leaf table and that end was leaning pretty bad so he put a support under it to hold the leaf up to the position it needs to be.

Some 20 years ago I found in a magazine a poem about a hand-me-down table and it reminded me of our table. I had someone to do the poem in calligraphy for me and now it hangs in our dining room.

Hand-Me-Down Table

This hand-me-down table
Is special to me
For every Thanksgiving
My mind's eye can see
The chairs filled with people
Who've come to this place
And left all the memories
That time can't erase:

The uncles and aunts,
Our parents and friends;
And once in a while
Grown kids wandered in
With someone they'd found
Who had no other place
To spend their Thanksgiving
(We always had space).

It's a blessing, I think,
That a table like this
Just seems to make room
For one more to fit;
And sure, there were times
When someone complained
(But they were the first
to show up again).

So this hand-me-down table
With it's rich history
Can't be tossed in some heap-
What a loss that would be!
Though it's scratched and in need
Of a little repair,
May the next generation
Want it, too, is my prayer.

These are picture of our hand-me-down table in need of a little repair and then some pictures of our table all beautiful and ready for Thanksgiving Day.