Spending time on the porch and at the kitchen table

         There are two places that I believe people these days don’t spend enough time sitting a spell and getting to know each other – the porch and the kitchen table.
           My mama had an old metal table with four chairs in the kitchen. We ate most of our suppers and meals at that table together as a family.
            The kitchen table provided lots of great memories as a kid.
            Experts say time spent at the kitchen table offers profound benefits. It serves as the literal heartbeat of the home where families gather to share meals, pray and build lasting relationships. I have to agree.
            It was at the table where I helped snap green beans as a kid from the garden or turn mom’s antique food grinder. It was an aluminum coned shaped device in a three-legged stand that was used to smash and drain tomatoes for canning.
            These days you can buy an electrical grinder that will do the same thing with less effort.
            My folks had a small garden in the backyard of our Tulsa home. They raised a few vegetables including cabbage, lettuce, onions, okra and tomatoes.
            My dad always enjoyed gathering a head of lettuce and some onions and my mom would make him a bowl of wilted lettuce using hot bacon grease. Of course, we had a grease can on the stove top.
           The grease was often used to season fried potatoes or okra. I remember once my mom used the grease to make homemade lye soap.
           In the late 1960s and early 70s, my folks and another family, the Schellhorns from the First Baptist Church, raised a huge garden together on a spot of land in East Tulsa.
            My dad would load his Montgomery Ward roto-tiller in the back of his 1967 Chevrolet truck and carry it to the garden and till the earth.
         They raised everything from watermelons to cantaloupes, tomatoes, okra, green beans, carrots, potatoes, corn, squash, beets, radishes, peas and every other kind of vegetable imaginable.
             I remember many summer days being in the kitchen and hearing the pressure cooker whistling away on the stove. There were two large pantry cabinets in our kitchen that were always stocked with canned goods.
            On Friday nights in the late 1970s, my dad and I would make the five or so mile trek to north Sheridan in Tulsa and stop at the Chuckwagon drive-in. The restaurant was shaped like a chuckwagon and featured drive in carhop and walk up service. It was there that we would order wheel burgers with the fixings and French fries and head home.
            We’d all sit around the table and eat supper while watching the  Dukes of Hazard and Dallas on a small television.
            It was also in the kitchen and living room that I got my backside spanked if I misbehaved. If I got in trouble in school, I was guaranteed a spanking when I got home. I admit, it hurt, but I’m thankful for every spanking I got as it kept me out of trouble.
            We also had a nice size dining room table with two extra leaves and chairs. We enjoyed many holiday meals at that table and it was also a gathering place for when company came over for lunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken after church on Sunday.
            We wrapped presents on that table and celebrated birthdays and I also did homework there. And in the winter months, we hung our coats on the chairs to dry.
            We had a nice size concrete front porch, but I don’t recall using it much as a youngster. However, we did have large concrete deck out back. My dad would fire up the Hasty-Bake charcoal grill and cook a chicken on the rotisserie or grill some hamburgers.
        We often had family stop and we’d all gather outside to visit and eat. And sometimes we’d have homemade ice cream.
            When we’d go fishing, we often brought our catch home and cleaned them on the back patio. My mom would cook the fish in the iron skillet along with a batch of fried potatoes. It’s hard to beat fresh crappie, catfish or bass with a side of potatoes.
            I remember another time when my dad was mowing neighborhood yards. It was getting late and my mom decided to fry a chicken. It must have been midnight before we ate, but what great memories I have.
             At our Iowa home, we don’t have a front porch, outside of a small concrete pad by the walkout garage door. We do have a nice deck in the back, but it faces west, northwest and gets too hot to sit outside on a summer evening.
            I’ve often dreamed of having a roof of some sort put over the deck.
Last year while going garage sale hunting in Mount Pleasant during the Midwest Old Threshers, we bought two new in-the-box white rocking chairs like they have at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant, only these were from Wal-Mart.
            I still haven’t put them together, but once I do, it will be a nice addition to our deck. I’m going to have to spend mornings on the deck instead of afternoons.
            Life can get busy these days as there is always something that needs to be done. I encourage you to find time to spend with family and friends on the porch or at the kitchen table. It’s time well spent!
            Remember that Good Things are Happening, every day and always.