One more day until the election and I am hoping for a new president that will take the Covid virus seriously. One who will provide a national plan for dealing with the pandemic and get it under control. The pandemic will be playing major role in the election and there's no doubt about it, the virus is in charge of our lives. It controls the economy and everything that we do. It has killed more than 200,000 Americans and is looking for more.
Since March Retired Mountain Man and I have social distanced and always wear masks when we are out in public. Now we are making plans for the holidays, knowing that it will be just Jon and I this year.
We will be the only ones seated at our table for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which got me to thinking about our dining table. The table where thousands of conversations have taken place. Friendship, laughter, love, sadness. So many plans made for the future. All around our table.
I bought our dining table in October, 1980. We had just finished building our house and since the Loman cabin (our rental for 6 years) already had a beautiful round oak table, we had never bought one.
I found the table at the used furniture store in Sandpoint. $75 for the table, 2 captain's chairs and 4 regular chairs, plus a custom-made table pad which had never been used. The table is walnut and has 3 leaves. One of them folds underneath and pops up when the table is opened. We did use the pads and have worn them out after forty years of use.
Why am I writing about a table? Well, you can guess. It's been empty now for eight months. As in, no guests around our table. Fortunately, it is not empty because someone in our family has died of Covid, but it's still empty and it will be for the upcoming holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Yet, I still smile when I think of all the gatherings and good times we had with everyone seated around that table. There were the family meals, of course, where we talked about our day in the evening with Jamie and David, but our family entertainment in the 80's and 90's was playing board games and as the boys grew older, hundreds of poker and pinochle games.
A family reunion with my brother Roy and sister Mitzi in the game. Mitzi doesn't look very happy. She must have been losing.
If the boys weren't playing in a football or basketball game on Friday or Saturday night, then it was game night at home. We had a Saturday night tradition of playing Aggravation with our friends Cami and Kenny Walraf. Every Saturday night we played for the world championship. Then there were many games of Bridge with our other neighbors, John and Gail Underwood. Gail taught us to play Bridge and I have to say that she was the only one who was ever really good at it.
In the photo below, the kids were playing a board game while the adults were playing cards at the table.
When Jon's parents or my parents came to visit for a weekend, we always played multiple hands of pinochle. They also loved to play Aggravation and Grandpa Jim loved to play poker. Grandpa Jim almost always took home the money at the end of the night.
Another family reunion with Jon's sister, Linda and daughter Jenny and Aunt Irenie, (Irene Dunn)
The best part of playing all of those games, was the conversation. The topics of discussion were many, but it was always fun and of course, there were snacks. There were no cell phone distractions during the games. Everyone was present. We usually listened to our favorite music playing in the background, although there were sometimes when a football game was being broadcast on the TV as we played. The conversation always won out. We learned what each person had been doing, what they were thinking about and plans were made for what would happen the following week.
Computers were to become a big part of our lives. Little did we know. JP and David were putting one together in the photo below.
Retired Mountain Man and I loved hosting big gatherings. We hosted dozens of family reunions for both sides of our family. One of the reunions transitioned into our Oyster Party, which we held every August for more than twenty years. There were too many people to seat everyone around the table at those events, but the table was always surrounded by many, especially at our New Year's Eve celebration.
Somewhere along in there a band came into being. The Cougar Creek Band. It started out with just a few instruments, but soon there were at least 8, sometimes 12, musicians. We needed a place to rehearse and our basement was transformed into a music room. We rehearsed once a week and after a two-hour rehearsal everyone was always ready for snacks. We decided we would just start to have potlucks after each rehearsal.
Band dinners around the table. We definitely needed the 3 extra leaves to seat everyone around the table. Every weekend for at least two years.
The memories are wonderful. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas family dinners, which were very special, but for those holidays it wasn't just a one-day event. Our gathering was for at least two or three days, so that meant multiple meals around the table. There were lots of "firsts". The first holiday dinner for each grandchild. Rylee was in charge of the table decorations and settings that year.
The table was also very handy for special projects such as making the banner for the 4th of July parade. Linda and Macy working on the finishing touches.
This time the gals in the Cougar Creek Band were working on deciding a name for a spin-off of the group. The final decision was The Hope Mountain Blues Band.
As I said, so many good memories. This year it will be just Jon and I at the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will be thinking of all of our past celebrations and hoping for more in the future.
Which brings us back to the election. Retired Mountain Man and I voted for change. We believe that honesty and integrity, decency, equality, kindness, empathy, and most of all, respect for others, are what's important. We voted for the more than 200,000 people who have died from Covid and their families. It didn't have to be this way.
Voter suppression and voter intimidation at the polls is wrong. If you are one of those people who had to stand in line for hours and hours at the polls, we say, "thank you". There needs to be a change made across America so that everyone can vote and it doesn't take 4 hours of standing in line.
This year it appears that the younger generation is more engaged in the election. (age 18-29). I am very encouraged by that. It's their future that's at stake. What do they want their America to be like?
We are hoping for change.
Hope is a good thing.
