Remember Christmas or Thanksgiving at Grandma's house? My grandmother lived in a big old Queen Anne style house right on Puget Sound.
Three Tree Point, WA The photo at right shows a typical wintery day near my grandmother's house. The view is west, across Puget Sound, towards Vashon Island and the Olympic Mountains.Anyhoo, my grandmother's house had a dining room that was only used on special occasions, and of course for kids, those special occasions meant sitting at the card table in the adjacent hall.
But that was okay, because we probably couldn't really see much above the table top if we were sitting in the big chairs of the fancy dining table that my grandmother had found during one of her many forays into the antique world.
Eventually we got old enough, I think it was maybe high school or so, where we were promoted to big table status. Maybe we had to wait until college, I'm not quite sure. But it was quite a ceremony. My grandfather sat at the head of the table, in the only chair that had arms -- more regal I suppose.
We were not raised to pray before meals, but Thanksgiving was always an exception, and the whole family would join hands, as my grandfather recited a prayer. Then with some degree of pomposity, my grandfather would begin to cut the turkey or whatever the main course was, while pickles, salad and potatoes were passed around.
The big thing to avoid was the dread task of washing dishes, which I usually managed to shirk and run upstairs to watch football (my grandmother did not believe in having a TV downstairs).
Eventually we became the older and there were a new generation of kids sitting at the card table. Not so long ago I went to my uncle's house for Thanksgiving, and he led the family in prayer, and we linked hands just as his own father, my grandfather had done.
I think, or perhaps hope, that we all have memories like this, which help guide us through our lives long after the people who helped create them are gone.
So "kiddie table", yeah, I guess that's a trigger.