Heritage Table

... lion's claw foot ...

Moiya still has an old table from the house she grew up in.

I remembered the table when I saw it this week and asked her where it sat in the house we grew up in.

I couldn’t remember.

She didn’t say but she showed me how it opened up and when she did, I could remember my dad and grandfather opening up that table and playing checkers at it.

It does not have a built in checker board, like the one that Wyona bought a few years ago.

... table opens and swirls ...

But there is a large space where the checkers and the board were kept. They would open up the table, lay out the board and sit by the window that looked toward the mountains.

They played an alternative checker game. Once crowned, Kings could jump down a whole diagonal line to capture an opponent’s man.

The table is as I remember it.

I studied the legs when I was young.

I must have been dusting them. I didn’t have a name for the brass cover on the feet of the table. Two of them are missing now.

... table opens up ...

They may have been missing then, as well.

All of Moiya’s children and grandchildren will be visiting for Christmas: 14 grandchildren, all under the age of 8.

 I don’t think there will be much chance of an adult checker game at that table over the holidays.

There is more chance that many meals will be eaten beside or on it.

Happy festivities over food to all!

Arta