I love my online author friends! For October’s family story, I’d like to welcome guest blogger Jessica Tanner. Her story of an old kitchen table and family gatherings brought back my own memories of precious conversations around my grandparents’ kitchen table as well as my parents’ and ours. Welcome, Jessica!
Stories around the Kitchen Table
By Jessica A. Tanner
Growing up, I remember the laughter, the smell of oatmeal or peanut butter cookies, and the stories passed around my grandparents’ kitchen table. A table cloth covered the round, light-colored wood. The center reminded me of a tree trunk, one that could strangely break into two pieces when the table expanded, and rather than ending in roots, it ended in these four, clawed feet holding something—perhaps a wooden ball. My grandparents got the table during their honeymoon. The owners of the cabin near theirs were having a yard sale. They didn’t know how old the table was—perhaps forty to sixty years—they’d had it a while. Then, my grandparents had it over sixty-three.
More important than the old table were the people: my grandparents—my mom’s parents. My grandma was the youngest of six girls, my grandfather an only child. He was about five foot ten, she wasn’t quite five feet. They both grew up during the Great Depression and enjoyed reading, dancing, good food, and more.
Through thick and thin, through good and rough times, they stayed true to each other. My grandmother was a devout Catholic, my grandfather struggled to connect with faith. Both were incredibly smart, both very caring.
They talked about their childhoods: Grandma and her older sisters, sometimes the cat, or her parents—one fantastic with needle and thread while the other knew how to fix cars and play the piano; and Grandpa about visiting his many relations, one of them was a family of sharecroppers that raised the best tasting strawberries, or about the various jobs he had—waiter, soda jerk, machine shop worker, and more.
Other times they’d share about their traveling or camping adventures. Sometimes about the people in their electronics school. Doctors, a priest or two, the average man, and more studied in their school. All were grateful for the chance.
And still there were more stories to share. Sometimes about my mom and her siblings or even about my cousins or me and my brother.
Every story filled me with wonder. So many of them heard around that old table. A table that had already experienced another family’s adventures before my grandparents picked it up for a song. A table sitting in my parents’ dining room experiencing even more stories and another marriage tested by good and rough times. Oh, how a sight encourages a young heart to hold out hope for someday and long for adventures to share across its wooden surface! And to wonder if the old table could talk, what stories would it tell?
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Jessica’s bio: When Jessica A. Tanner isn’t writing stories full of vivid characters and creatures, she enjoys a view of the Rocky Mountains, takes long walks, and hangs with her many critters. Jessica is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), Realm Makers, and Wolf Creek Christian Writers Network (WCCWN). Sonji is her award winning debut YA Christian fantasy novel and Peaflower: a Princess and the Pea Retelling her recently released and well-liked debut YA fairytale novella.
Connect with Jessica: www.jessicaatannerauthor.com
