What We've Got
Feb. 19th, 2012 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayYesterday, I finally bought one of those crappy-looking, plastic shelf units that I'd seen at Lowe's. In another lifetime, which now seems longer ago than I would've dreamed was possible, I'd have sprinted up a steep run of attic stairs with dimensions in hand, pulled out some pieces of seasoned hardwood, run them through the table saw, and built the damn thing myself. But those stairs are no longer there, because the house itself is gone, and I'm no longer one who sprints up stairs. For any reason.
So now, in the dining room, next to an E-Z Home armoire, china cabinet, and chest of drawers, all made in China from the finest particle board, stands this latest answer to temporary need, already filled with our grandson's puzzles, games, Hot Wheels, Tinker Toys, Nerf guns, crayons, markers, coloring books, construction paper, plastic musical instruments, fold-up putting green with USKids putter and balls, etc., etc.
Ironic, then, that the motivation for all of this was to get the lingering remnants, from our recent solar system project, off the ancient and battered dining room table from my wife's childhood home (now also gone from the former immigrant neighborhood of East Washington Street) on which were served so many hundreds of meals to family members, friends, and the latest arrivals from Ellis Island.
Of all the things once held by that house, of all the people and objects that passed through its doors, this table is one of the last survivors. But the veneer that once covered its top is gone, the leaves, that once extended its hospitality beyond the large and fatherless family which in those days surrounded it, have not been seen in years, and the structural piece, which connects the table top to its pedestal base, is badly split.
So I told my wife, when she got home from work this morning, that I'd finally be turning it over and getting it fixed. Glancing at it, she said, "That old thing has gotta be a hundred years old." And I said, "Yeah, but it's what we've got. Like you and me..."
LPK
LiveJournal
2.19.2012 (a)
So now, in the dining room, next to an E-Z Home armoire, china cabinet, and chest of drawers, all made in China from the finest particle board, stands this latest answer to temporary need, already filled with our grandson's puzzles, games, Hot Wheels, Tinker Toys, Nerf guns, crayons, markers, coloring books, construction paper, plastic musical instruments, fold-up putting green with USKids putter and balls, etc., etc.
Ironic, then, that the motivation for all of this was to get the lingering remnants, from our recent solar system project, off the ancient and battered dining room table from my wife's childhood home (now also gone from the former immigrant neighborhood of East Washington Street) on which were served so many hundreds of meals to family members, friends, and the latest arrivals from Ellis Island.
Of all the things once held by that house, of all the people and objects that passed through its doors, this table is one of the last survivors. But the veneer that once covered its top is gone, the leaves, that once extended its hospitality beyond the large and fatherless family which in those days surrounded it, have not been seen in years, and the structural piece, which connects the table top to its pedestal base, is badly split.
So I told my wife, when she got home from work this morning, that I'd finally be turning it over and getting it fixed. Glancing at it, she said, "That old thing has gotta be a hundred years old." And I said, "Yeah, but it's what we've got. Like you and me..."
LPK
LiveJournal
2.19.2012 (a)
