When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we
had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things
are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we
sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s
heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of
what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I
begin my book of Heirlooms.
is for oak table.
I admit it - I’m finally at the age when my friends and
neighbors are using the D word - DOWNSIZING. In this house, downsizing is not
even discussed. But sometimes I do look around my house and play the “What If”
game. What if we decided to downsize? What if we really had to move out of this
house? Which pieces of furniture would we take with us?
Always my answer is my round oak pedestal table.
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| Oak table in the dining room |
In the 1970s when the antiques craze was driving up the
prices on desirable large furniture like pedestal tables, my husband had a
brilliant idea. He remembered such a table in the basement of his parents’
home. Nobody was using it. Maybe his mother would be glad for us to take it.
But as Murphy’s Law goes, she sold the table to an
antiques dealer two weeks before we thought to ask for it. So off to the
antiques dealer we went to buy it back. Drat the luck, he had sold it already,
and it was across the street being refinished.
Everyone felt bad, not just us. The pangs of guilt sent
the dealer and his refinisher on a mission to find us a round oak table.
And they did! The pedestal had been painted black, but we
all agreed that even though the black would never be stripped off completely, the
table would be enhanced by the black paint seeped into the grain. The gentleman
refinishing the table even made a couple leaves for it so that we can seat more
people.
I suppose that since WE bought the table, technically it
really is not an heirloom, but it will be one day when our daughters have to decide
about its future.
Wendy
© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Aaahh... made to last! Beautiful! My grandparents bought oak furniture when they married and still had it 50 years later! Theirs was the nice rich dark colour yours seems to be. Now some of my cousins enjoy the pieces. My husband and I furnished our place with old oak furniture from the SOS (thrift) store. They get a lot of high end stuff, and we pop in every once in a while to see what they have.
ReplyDeleteMy Genealogy Challenges
It's good your grandparents' furniture lives on in your cousins' homes.
DeleteFirst visit today. What a GREAT theme for the A to Z! So many wonderful old things you've shared. I looked back at a few posts. Every one a gem. Moved from an Art & Crafts Bungalow I lived in for over 30 years. That was 8 years ago...in a neighborhood loaded with Victorian & other era homes. Lots of Oak everywhere. I love needlepoint. O could go on & on.
ReplyDeletePulp Paper & Pigment-My Fiber Art Blog
Thanks for visiting. My great-grandfather built an Arts & Crafts bungalow with dark oak wood door casings, bookcases, stair rails, etc etc.
DeleteOak tables are destined to become heirlooms. We have a large rectangular dining table (and a Welsh dresser to go with it} I just wonder who will inherit them.
ReplyDeleteWhoever gets it will no doubt appreciate it.
DeleteInteresting story about your beautiful pedestal table!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteWhat a beautiful table! Funny, we are in the throes of downsizing as we prepare to move and the family "stuff" to move is overwhelming. I may even have to let some of it go.
ReplyDeleteSay it ain't so !
DeleteWendy, our dining room table is very similar AND the carpet we have beneath is almost a twin of yours! ha!
ReplyDeleteSee - we are probably related!
DeleteThere were an oak table and dining room dresser that went with it in the house we moved to about 1962. I guess it was too big and heavy for the children of the former owners to move out. I didn't have any need for it when I left home and my parents didn't want it. It may still be there with the house falling down around it. I would love to have it now. It would seat most of the family.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some HUGE furniture that I can imagine many owners just left behind because it was too heavy to move. I wonder how they got it IN the house to begin with. Maybe they were young and strong then.
DeleteOf course you have an Oak Table...I would have been surprised if you didn't. Great story on how you came to own a piece of an oak tree. Your heirlooms are really making for a wonderful theme.
ReplyDeleteHa - yes, I suppose so. I wouldn't be me if I didn't have an oak table.
DeleteBeautiful table...I've moved so much over the years, little of value has accumulated. Now, at age 70, I find my desire to "collect" has shrunk. Probably a good thing. LOL!
ReplyDeleteDonna B. McNicol|Author and Traveler
A to Z Flash Fiction Stories | A to Z of Goldendoodles
I hear ya! There are some things I used to like but now just want to give a good heave-ho!
DeleteI have one very similar in my dining room! It had once belonged to a man my great aunt worked for, and my grandma ended up with it when Mr. Urton died. Then I got it. My mom has one that my parents bought in the late 1960s and refinished, and it's a much better table. I hope to have it some day and pass the one I have now to one of my kids. My table doesn't have any leaves!
ReplyDeleteI like being able to keep the table small most of the time. Leaves are a nice addition. Can yours handle leaves if you could get some made?
DeleteYes, it could. I have a couple of planks my grandma used when she had the table, and one is an actual leaf, just not for this table. They're in pretty bad shape. I keep thinking some day I'll get some made....
Delete