Post by sandy on Dec 17, 2007 15:47:58 GMT -5
I don't remember the specific date but I know it was probably a Sunday when I first saw this table. It was also sometime in the early 1970's. Is this important? Not really but it seems to fit. I am not sure what exactly my husband, John, and I were doing. That really has no bearing on my story but we were in a warehouse that my uncle was using as storage. John was getting whatever he wanted and I was exploring. To be honest I was nosing around. I can't help it. It's part of my make up. Put me in a place filled with stuff and I am exploring. I find it amazing what people will store. My uncle's warehouse was filled with a lot of interesting things. Uncle Earl is a house mover and also does demolition of of buildings, so he finds very interesting things.
Over on one side of the warehouse sat a five spool legged table. Poor thing has concrete blocks stacked on top it it. I fell in love. I thought what a treasure and old oak table that needs a home. John looked at it and said, "What do you want that old thing for? It has about a dozen coats of paint on it and is probably all beat up. Look it has concrete blocks on it."
I walked away determined to have that table. I threw a few hints to Uncle Earl and even offered to buy it. (Big of me ,wasn't it?) After a period of time the table came home with me.
One fine sunny spring day I got out my paint stripper and my table and went outside to strip my oak five legged table. Being sensible I started on the easy part first. Layer after layer of paint came off. First the white with the red trim, then the white with green trim , then the green with white trim and on and on. Must have been ten coats of paint on this oak table. The whole time I was stripping I was grumbling. "How could anyone paint an oak table?" Finally I saw the wood showing through. But.....something was wrong. That wasn't oak. It's, oh my, walnut. What a surprise. I was disappointed and happy at the same time. I worked on that table and worked on that table. Remember I started on the easy parts. The legs, all five of them, were a misery. No amount of stripper would get that paint out of the spools. Over a period of about fifteen years I worked on that table. Then one day John surprised me and finished stripping it. He put several coats of varnish on it and took the one board that was in it to a local craftsman and had 2 other boards made. Seems my little table would open up and you could put at least five boards in it.
The table is sitting in my dining room room now and has been there for maybe twenty years. Today I was cleaning it and started thinking about the stories this table could tell if it could talk. Since I have had the table it has fed four generations meals, served as a craft table, a game table, a storage place, a gossip table,and many other uses. That of course made me wonder what else this not oak table has done. I know that at one time it was a writing table because I found the ink stain on the top. Was that when someone started painting it? How many meals has it served? How many people have sat and talked around it? The table is a drop leaf and is small when the boards are out and the leaves are down. Was it a wedding gift for a young couple? Did it eventually stretch to it's fullest to accommodate all the children in the family. Did it serve generations of others before it served the generations of my family? Did it serve funeral meals, birthday cakes, holiday meals? If I listen very closely can I hear the echoes of the past in my five legged table? Probably not. But someday I sure hope that someone in my family will take my table and tell my story and add theirs to it.
Over on one side of the warehouse sat a five spool legged table. Poor thing has concrete blocks stacked on top it it. I fell in love. I thought what a treasure and old oak table that needs a home. John looked at it and said, "What do you want that old thing for? It has about a dozen coats of paint on it and is probably all beat up. Look it has concrete blocks on it."
I walked away determined to have that table. I threw a few hints to Uncle Earl and even offered to buy it. (Big of me ,wasn't it?) After a period of time the table came home with me.
One fine sunny spring day I got out my paint stripper and my table and went outside to strip my oak five legged table. Being sensible I started on the easy part first. Layer after layer of paint came off. First the white with the red trim, then the white with green trim , then the green with white trim and on and on. Must have been ten coats of paint on this oak table. The whole time I was stripping I was grumbling. "How could anyone paint an oak table?" Finally I saw the wood showing through. But.....something was wrong. That wasn't oak. It's, oh my, walnut. What a surprise. I was disappointed and happy at the same time. I worked on that table and worked on that table. Remember I started on the easy parts. The legs, all five of them, were a misery. No amount of stripper would get that paint out of the spools. Over a period of about fifteen years I worked on that table. Then one day John surprised me and finished stripping it. He put several coats of varnish on it and took the one board that was in it to a local craftsman and had 2 other boards made. Seems my little table would open up and you could put at least five boards in it.
The table is sitting in my dining room room now and has been there for maybe twenty years. Today I was cleaning it and started thinking about the stories this table could tell if it could talk. Since I have had the table it has fed four generations meals, served as a craft table, a game table, a storage place, a gossip table,and many other uses. That of course made me wonder what else this not oak table has done. I know that at one time it was a writing table because I found the ink stain on the top. Was that when someone started painting it? How many meals has it served? How many people have sat and talked around it? The table is a drop leaf and is small when the boards are out and the leaves are down. Was it a wedding gift for a young couple? Did it eventually stretch to it's fullest to accommodate all the children in the family. Did it serve generations of others before it served the generations of my family? Did it serve funeral meals, birthday cakes, holiday meals? If I listen very closely can I hear the echoes of the past in my five legged table? Probably not. But someday I sure hope that someone in my family will take my table and tell my story and add theirs to it.
