YELLOW TABLE
After my mother died, I put her furniture in storage in the basement of one of my apartment buildings on the West Side. The furniture sat there for five years until my son Teddy took the furniture when he went off to law school. The furniture was mildewed, but usable.
When I visited Teddy at law school, I saw my mom’s furniture and got something akin to post-traumatic stress disorder. Seeing her yellow kitchen table again was a punch to the solar plexus. I had eaten at that table for 18 years, and now it was in student-housing in Toledo. It was Formica. It was 1950s.
During high school, I was laconic at that table. How’s school? I ain’t talking. My dad didn’t talk much either. My entire family didn’t talk much. And we didn’t watch TV. We ate a lot of fish. Halibut was very cheap, believe it or not. For breakfast, we ate pink grapefruit.
Toledo 2012
A version of this post appeared here 5/9/12.
4 comments
That furniture is probably worth quite a bit. “Mid-century Modern.”
My parents in the early ’50s also had a yellow formica kitchen table with aluminum sides. Pastel yellows were very big in the ’50s – e.g. formicas, appliances, bathroom fixtures, interior walls, cars, house exteriors, cars. So were pastel pinks, blues, greens, peaches, and turquoises.
Wonder if the table will make it to Goodwill.
great table! it was in the kitchen at the mark IV with the crazy floral wallpaper, right? i remember the grapefruits more from the boca kitchen.
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