Memories of an Antique Farm Table
Cindy Howell

Defined Tag: Antique Tables.

Most people who live in farm yards can recall the times when they used to have dinner at their grandparents house down the road. The tables your grandparents used would be antique farm tables by todays standards.They are strong and sturdy, hardly ever showing any signs of wear in terms of their age. In fact they could go on being used for the next hundred years! So, do you recall those old tables, and how they smelled, and what it was like to eat on them?

During some of the years that my daughter was growing up, we lived in an old farm house. We had remodeled it to update the plumbing and heating, however we restored the woodwork, floors and moldings to their original state. We found some nice antiques to place in the main hall. But, it took us years to find the right antique farm table for the kitchen.

As with most farm houses, the kitchen is huge with a space to eat in. There is also a formal dining room; however the majority of our meals were eaten in the kitchen area. Not only was it more convenient but the area was warm and cheery. So that's where the antique table went - The kitchen. It was a strong oak table that had several leaves that stored underneath it. When the table was stretched with all the leaves in, it could seat twelve people. About 6 years ago, we decided to move out to an urban home, and that was when we put the restored farm house up for sale.

We were in the process of selling the house when a friend of ours called us; he was looking for a place to stay, and asked us if we knew of any. So I told him about our farm house, and asked if he would be interested in it. To our delight, he said yes. That was when my daughter asked if we were going to take the antique farm table with us. I told her it was too big for the house we were moving into. In hindsight, that wasn't so smart.

I had plans to sell the table and many of the antiques in it to my friend because they were so suitable for that house. My daughter insisted that we keep the antique farm table. All the time, we thought she only cared for modern stuff. She only wanted extremely modern furniture, and now she wanted the antique farm table for an apartment. She admitted that she always loved the table and the farm house. She claimed that she wanted to have a similar home when she bought one.

It was then that I realized just what these little things really mean to us, and even a drab old table could assume such sentimental value. All those times we dined on it as a family, were not forgotten by my daughter. Like what they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that was the case with our plain old antique farm table.

Cindy Howell has a collection of antique dolls from all around the world, and serves as one of the contributors for Antique Joint. Besides dolls, she is also a fan of antique artwork.