Peek Inside: My favorite piece of family furniture

FREE IMAGES

We've affectionately dubbed the kitchen table the Yahtzee table in my family. We've played hundreds (maybe thousands) of games on its sleek wooden surface. So many games, in fact, that last summer my mother had the entire table refinished. Apparently, our years of dice-rolling had left too many scratches and scuff marks for my mother's liking. I came home one day to find a table I almost didn't recognize. Two refinishing treatments was all it took. It looked like a new table right there in our kitchen, like something straight out of the showroom or a fancy catalogue. Shiny. Pristine. Scratch-and-scuff free.

 

And I didn't like it one bit. So of course, I had to make my feelings known.

 

This was an affront to me, I told her. An assault on our game-playing fun that has become a ritual for us since my father died. Because there were memories attached to that table. Memories attached to every scratch on that table. You can't buy those sorts of memories. They take time to form, and you're most definitely not going to find them in a new piece of furniture.

Maybe you've got similar memories attaches to your home decor items. A rocking chair? A comfortable bed? A seemingly dusty end table? These are the items which mark our lives. What is it about a piece of furniture that can hold such powerful memories for us? How just the sight of it can take us back to that moment in time - times of joy and comfort? Does any furniture hold special meaning for you, friends? What does it mean to you?

P.S. That second photo shows our game-playing essentials; notice Harry's little paws? :)