AUNT MARY’S KITCHEN TABLE
By Earl’s Place Resident Nate
In the fall of 2014 Goucher College students in Phaye Poliakoff-Chen’s freshmen writing seminar attended our Thursday night house meetings. The students and our residents wrote a number of creative nonfiction pieces together, including essays modeled after NPR’s popular “This I Believe” series. In one session our residents were asked to write about the most important kitchen table of their lives. The following piece is a response to that prompt.
I’m sitting at Aunt Mary’s old black and white metal table, bet you didn’t know you could pull it out on two sides and make it bigger.
I love that table so much because of the love and joy I saw in her face as she prepared our family meals while humming one of her favorite hymns.
The joy our family had being together at that table sharing meals and love and an occasional argument over who would get the bowl or spoon after the cake mix was poured.
Never knew how that chip got on the corner, well, it had to be before my time anyway; the rust told me so.
Even though my story started with Aunt Mary’s table, I believe that home and family are an essential part of the foundation for love both inside and outside of Aunt Mary’s house.
Even though my story started with Aunt Mary’s table, I believe that home and family are an essential part of the foundation for love both inside and outside of Aunt Mary’s house.
Because, at and around that table there was love, friendship and conversation. Most of all love!
I remember that Aunt Mary’s table sat in a huge kitchen with a large cast iron stove with the big round pipe that came out of the wall, like it grew from it.
It had four big holes in the top and we would take turns going in the basement to the coal chute and wood pile to get both to feed it.
That’s how those wonderful meals got made and I fell in love with family members that earlier that day I said I couldn’t stand.
And the kitchen became the warmest room in the house.
Hold on a minute, what’s that I hear? Oranges, apples, watermelon (sweet to the rind), here comes the Arabber (a street merchant) with his horse and produce cart down Born’s Court on the side of the house.
Aunt Mary is getting up in age and for a woman her size she gets around very well, but she doesn’t have to go outside because of the window on the Born Court side of the kitchen wall where the Arabber just hands her purchases up to her.
Now who in the world is that? Oh! It’s Busterpete, Roy and Reddog at the back
screen door for me, yelling can I come out and play.
Sorry, got to go play before dinner at Aunt Mary’s table.
Boy, I love this house and Aunt Mary’s table.
-Nate Giles (11/6/14)
