After wandering the planet, the maple table has returned. It has history, be it just this generation. When we rented our first apartment on Oakdale in the Keswick side of Glenside, the table was in the kitchen. We could have it for $15, with four chairs. It has a bit of a funky look to it, obviously an attempt in the 30’s to look “modern.” We paid our $15 and adopted the table.
It was covered in pure 70’s “antiquing” paint in a hideous shade of green. I remember tying it on top of our Volkswagon and taking it over to my parents garage. In the warm summer sun I set it up in the garage and back drive, and stripped off the ugly green. Underneath I found it had been stained that red of the 30’s. Talked to some friends more intelligent in refinishing than I was and they suggested Clorox, straight up, put on with a brush in bright sunlight. It transformed the table to the natural blonde of maple. Next was a good coat of urethane and we were good to go.
When we went to the Philippines the table went to brother #5 in Indianapolis. It lived with him for four years and came north to Michigan when we moved here. We set it up in the kitchen and it became the daily table for the family. There are drop leaves on the sides and those always caused a bit of consternation – more than one glass was broken by a kid accidentally kicking the flap underneath, and much milk mopped off the floor. But in terms of a table for raising kids, it was impermeable. It’s had everything imaginable that a child can drop dropped on top of it and there is hardly a dent. A few “loved” spots.
Somewhere along the line it got small for five people, even with the drop leaves and the extra leaf, so we moved it upstairs and bought a round 50 inch table, keeping the chairs. Though it has served well for probably 25 years, it’s just not the sturdy maple of the old table. But it’s bigger, and with a leaf can seat eight.
When the Driver got married she adopted the maple table and, with her, it went to North Carolina and then to Ohio. When she moved to Macau it came home, and then went back to Philadelphia with the Dragon when she returned from Alaska. Somewhere along the way in the late 2000’s the Driver and the Dragon swapped tables, giving the Dragon the Driver’s larger glass topped table. Then it was switched again, when small children at the Driver’s house began to knock the drop leaves down.
In late September, the Driver moved to Asia and the maple table came home again, and was put upstairs in one of the bedrooms. Most meals in this house are eaten by two people, and if there are more, there is a table that can seat 18 in the other room. On a whim, maybe of nostalgia, the maple table came downstairs and the man of the house fixed the drop leaves with a lock on each side. Why didn’t we think of that 42 years, and a few pieces of broken china, ago? It is a bit worse for wear so the surface got a good sanding and two coats of semi-gloss urethane.
Nestled in the kitchen, topped with a poinsettia, glistening golden in the light, the old maple table reigns again.
The round table? It will stay in the Tribe. It’s already gone to the Engineer’s parents who got their house back from their third son. They need a table that will seat two, or four, or six, or eight…
