Author Description

This is a collection of memories of being with and around my grandmother. These memories began when, four decades after her death, I saw a table that looked just like the one Grandma Miller had in her kitchen. The moment I saw that table I began to have flashbacks. Those memories originated over half a century ago. The first memory was back to the summer of 1952 when Grandma purchased her kitchen table. I was sitting beside her on the bleachers around the sales ring of The Cresbard Sales Barn. We were at one of their general merchandise auctions. That is where I saw Grandma Miller bid on and purchase a brand-new Formica-topped, drop-leaf kitchen table. From the time I was in the fifth grade, I worked on our family farm where Grandma Miller lived. I often had lunch at Grandma’s, as well as supper, then breakfast the next morning if I got to stay at the farm with her overnight. Those meals were almost always at her kitchen table. When I saw a kitchen table like the one Grandma had, I experienced memories of little-boy antics, misunderstandings, and numerous carefree learning experiences. I remembered hot Monday afternoons finishing up the weekly laundry with Grandma. Seeing that table made me want to go back to Grandma’s almost-abandoned farmstead. I have been able to go back there several times to look around, seeing those few things that remain at what was Grandma’s farm. I began to remember even more. When I saw the big barn at Grandma’s that was built in 1938, many more memories prompted my awareness of times gone by. I remembered that barn being the hub of production. I remembered shearing sheep in the back pens of that barn, built by Jim Hermann. I remembered pitching loose bundles of hay in the dust-filled haymow. I remembered the aromas up there of recently baled alfalfa. I saw one of the many play areas for me, my sister, and our nearby cousins. The remnants of less pleasant memories of hauling manure, grinding grain, and chasing sheep als