When they were married in 1914, they lived in the "little house" on the farm with this as their kitchen table. Mom remembers her baby sister in a laundry basket on top of that table, and she and her sister (2 and 4 years) pulling the baby and basket onto the floor!
Here's the culprits below. The toddler is my mother and the girl on the left is my Aunt Lizzie. It was these two who tipped the baby basket. (In this picture, circa 1923, the tossed sister was not born yet.)
Later when they moved into the "big house", there were 5 children and needed a much bigger table. It was relegated to the cellar as a laundry table. Mom also remembers it with an oil cloth draped over it and meat being cut up at butcher time.
I remember this table years later when I was a child. My grandmother had become a widow, and moved off the farm into a new little house built just for her. She had it in her basement there, too, and used it as a laundry table.
When we bought our house nearly 30 years ago, I took it for the screened porch. It is just a "stuff' table now. It has so many coats of chippy paint, and whitewash on it. I drag it outside each spring, and give it a good hosing down.
I like running my hand over its smooth surface, as many of my relatives must have done. It feels good.
