Don’t feel bad if you have to eat at the “Kid’s Table” today.
It is the coolest table to eat at in the house, anyways!
(November 27, 2025) The above 1978 photo is of “the booth” in the kitchen at my paternal grandparent’s house. Growing up I remember thinking I wanted one at my house as well… well, I kind of still do! But it just wasn’t in the cards with the layout and how we designed my current place. However, I still think of this kitchen booth often, as I am sure all of my cousins do as well. It seems like about 75% of the time we would walk in to grandma’s house through the kitchen, you would find my grandpa, Don Lisle, sitting at that old pine booth with a cigarette, a cup of coffee, and that day’s newspaper. There little black poodle Missy under the booth at his feet. That is probably the image that I think of the most when thinking of him. He’s been gone for 35 years and can still smell the smoke and coffee from there.
On special holidays like Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas the adults would all congregate for their meal in the dinning room at the big (and appropriately decorated) table. While the adults were being way too loud in the big dinning room (which was normal for that side of the family!) that left the booth and eventually an extra cardboard table in the kitchen as more of us little ones came along to feed ourselves for the holiday meals. But it was fun being in there and sure wasn’t a downgrade! The adults didn’t have anything fun to talk about anyhow.
I was fortunate enough to live at that house for four years when I went off to college. It was a unique collegiate experience living with you grandma! For one, there were REAL home cooked meals to be eaten made by her when I would come home for the day. Who wouldn’t want to have more of your Grandma’s cooking? My grandma, Mary, and I would sit at that booth together and she would tell me stories about her growing up there, things during the war… and who knows what I talked about! My life was all about my school classes, my band, music and movies, and what I was going to do when I drove up to Columbus for the weekend back then!
It’s funny… some things in my life have not changed decades later! My old band is still in my life (but in a completely different way), music and movies are still an obsession, and I am ALWAYS wondering where I am going to go or what I am going get into each weekend! But sadly, Grandma and Grandpa are long, long gone and really Thanksgivings were never the same after that. Still enjoyable, of course, but grandparent’s gone (on both sides of the family) still changes the family dynamic. But then you see a photo like this and it makes you smile and memories like that are true blessings to be thankful for as you get older. I can’t be with my any of my cousins on either side of the family for this holiday – but I want ALL of them to know that I appreciate them, the wonderful memories growing up, and that I love them.
And don’t feel bad if you have to eat at the “Kid’s Table”!
Happy Thanksgiving, Jason
