What Happened (Part 20)

 

This is the Dining Room, and we are very lucky to have a picture of it contemporary of the time.  You can see the old dining room table and its six padded vinyl chairs; what you can’t see is the wavy pattern of four lines on the top that border its outer edge that are just right for tracing with four little fingers. In the corner is the china cabinet that houses the green-and-white farm patterned dishware, which I never remember ever being used except for the cups, when we had big family gatherings and there weren’t enough for coffee.  In the corner is a small record cabinet.  In the earliest times there was a monster stereo console/radio against the divider wall (the radio never worked, but had a fascinating control dial you could adjust in a sci-fi manner), later replaced by a portable with built-in speakers. 

Always and ever hanging on the divider wall was a plaster sculpture, painted to look like bronze, of Jesus standing at the door and knocking with a gigantic key. Some weird plants that were probably meant to be bushes but looked like cactus to us Texas boys are growing around the door frame and beside Him. Hanging directly over the table is a lamp on an adjustable cord.

The dining room is sort of optional space, an area enshrined to respectability, a formal gathering spot most often passed by on the way to rooms where things actually happened. They almost do pass, just glancing over to make sure no-one is behind the curtains, when John notices something and points it out to Kenny. They rush over to the table and angle their heads down. Mike is hiding under it, stretched across two chairs so his feet won’t show.  He emerges looking pissed and punches Kenny on the shoulder for daring to find him.  This leaves only me to hunt down, and just one other room where I could be hiding.

{That is Mike and me in the photo. Even at this late date I remember wanting Mike's balloon because it had ears and mine did not.]