Settin the Table

I got a new set of dishes the other day when Vera Lee and I were out "Junkin for Jeasus". It was a hard call because I must have at least twenty sets of dishes. I say dishes because they are not all created equal. Some are indeed fine China; like Momma’s wedding china, she said she gave it to me because she always hated it, I mean what does that say about the woman who parts with nothing…but this china. But be that as it may…
I got my first set of dishes when I was a teenager. Liberty Blue was “A Piece a Week” with every $10.00 purchase from the A&P. Now, I didn’t buy groceries, but my momma and my grandmomma, and my boyfriends momma and aunt Mae Lee would buy them for me and save them up for my birthday or Christmas and then spring’um on me in a “place settin” I have 10 place settins and kept them in my hope chest. But I stopped hop’n and gave them to my cousin…and then twenty years later had to buy’um back cause I was feel'n nostalgic.

I fell in love with another set I saw while pass'n time in Miller & Roads on my lunch hour. They were pricy…for back in the day…but I managed to pick up pieces and drop enough hints that I ended up with enough to host about eight folk…and, (this is big) serve stuff on actual match'n platters and servin bowls…not from pans on the stove. I didn’t give those away, I jes keep’um in the “mahogany china press-radiator cover that Buck built for me as a surprise. (They’ve got a gold rim and I’m too lazy to wash’um by hand)

Not to be forgotten are the sets Wilton Armetale (stolen from Steak and Ale by an ole room-mate cause they only paid her minimum wage after a year) that my friends still think are gonna poison them even though I tell them that it is made up of 17 safe base metals none of which will deposit led in their systems…now the food I serve is often more lethal than my Armetale! (I mean the cholesterol alone will take you out before the lead)

Let me tell you…every set of china tells a story in my house….if my plates could talk! I love to set the table. I do; nothing makes me happier than to see all those dishes laid out…just expectin folks to pull up a chair and share a feast…be it store bought fried chicken or New Years pork roast…the table for me is the center of the universe. ..a personal alter if you will from which all great joys will be shared. I may have fixed some bad food in my day, but I hope and pray that those around my table have never had a bad meal.

Now Vera Lee…tell’um about the Friendly Village
(PS, this table is actually at Dennis and Jude's Farm...I don't seem to have a picture of my table...hummm....there are lots of the kitchen though!)