Yesterday I completed the every other year sanding and water staining of our outside dinner table. This table was made for us by Glenn Wenger, my father-in-law. It is one of my favorite things on earth. It is a great table. It affords plenty of room for my family and for hospitality. It is sturdy without being clumsy. The long benches are reinforced so heavy people—or a lot of not so heavy people—do not feel the bench bending beneath their weight. Between April and October, Emily and the girls and I eat most meals at that table under the overarching embrace of the shady maple tree that covers our patio with blissful shade. I love that table. Every other year, I get excited about sanding and staining it. It looks so good after I clean it, sand it twice—once with the rough stuff and then with a fine grain, and then stain it with Thompson’s Water Seal. (In careful testing, I have determined—using the 5 second soak in test with a few drips of water—that sanding and staining every year is really overkill. If it were not, I would do it.). After this, color of the wood returns and the water beads up on the table when it rains. The sight of that beaded water pleases me to no end.
Yesterday, however, was a momentous day. . . .
I like sanding and staining. I do not so much enjoy the cleaning. It is not the work—only the prelude to it. I arrived home yesterday evening to find that my daughter Layne had spent the morning scrubbing the table—singing while she scrubbed. She did a much better job than I normally do—and she loved it. I was overjoyed. It was like the Golden Age had begun and I was enjoying the first fruits of our (mainly Emily’s) work with the girls. I sanded and stained the table. We have to picnic out in the yard yesterday and today—it is too beautiful to be inside. Thursday night we will sit down at the table and have our inaugural meal.
Recently, Randy Booth, a Minister from Texas was here in Lancaster speaking on the value of celebration and food. American families, he said, no longer dine together. He mentioned one young man in his community—a teenager—who claimed to have never set down and eaten a meal at a table with his family. Do not let this be true of your family. Get to the table often. Eat together. Learn table manners. Tell stories and love each other. Also, find a good table and take care of it…maybe then it will help take care of you.
