Favorite Object

Object Title: Nana’s Table

Year Received: 2004

Year Made: 1940s

Material: Plastic/Formica laminate, wood, metal, chrome coating

Creator: Unknown

Me at Nana's table, circa 1986.

Some my earliest memories were created at my Nana’s kitchen table. Nana lived across town and I would often spend time alone with her. She was my favorite person. We’d dine on salads of iceberg lettuce and sliced tomatoes with a dash of Catalina dressing served in small, smooth bowls that were designed to look like wood, but were actually some sort of plastic. Those same bowls would hold breakfasts of Wheat Chex and sliced banana. Lunch would often be PB&J on wheat bread, cleanly cut into four squares, cottage cheese, apple slices, Fig Newtons, all neatly arranged on small white plates.

Nana's table has a 2 inch plastic or Formica top and shiny, chrome legs. It is round, but can be extended into a oval by flipping up an extra leaf. A small television sat on one end of the table, for watching The Price Is Right, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (this was back when Vanna White had to manually turn the letters). I would draw as Nana worked on crossword puzzles, or hand mending projects. I’d sip orange juice from a Garfield cup while Nana had her double insulated plastic tumbler, which I later realized wasn't just seltzer.

Notice the owl necklace.
Nana was an original hipster.

Nana passed away when I was in college, and I was fortunate to inherit this table. At first, it was prominently displayed in the center of the kitchen in apartments I shared with friends and created many new memories around it. I’d often find my roommate's cat on the table and shooing it away would yell, “Nana does not allow cats on the table!!”

Here’s the thing, though, I’ve intentionally omitted one significant detail about this object: it’s Pepto Bismal pink.  While it made perfect sense alongside the pastel wallpaper and countertops in Nana’s kitchen, displayed anywhere else, its color evokes an upset stomach. So, for many years, aesthetics have outweighed sentimentality. When my boyfriend-now-husband and I moved in together, I agreed that his stainless steel-topped table (great craigslist find, eventually resold on craigslist when we moved to solid wood) was a better option for our space. Nana’s table was dismantled and stored in the basement.

When we bought our house last year, Nana’s table remained disassembled and currently resides along a wall in our basement, surrounded by shelves of camping gear, tools, scraps of wood and bottles of vintage buttons (also from Nana). These objects represent some of my hobbies: hiking and camping, DIY house projects often created by wood scraps salvaged from dumpsters, and hoarding buttons.

We are now on our third dining table, this one purchased from a neighbor, Joel.

Current kitchen table.
Breakfast is ready!

It had belonged to Joel's grandmother and had been sitting in his basement for nine years. In case you were wondering, I feel a complexity of emotions about this; Somedays I feel I am eating with someone else’s grandmother while Nana waits alone in the cold, dark basement.

While it has not been displayed or used in over six years, Nana’s table remains one of my most prized possessions. It embodies so many meals and memories. It almost embodies Nana, a person. I can’t let go. 

Nana's table would be of no interest to those who dislike retro furniture, sentimental family heirlooms, round tables, and shades of pink. From the view of a mid-century furniture collector, this may be a story of neglect, rather than love. Am I neglecting this table? Neglecting my past? Should I either use it or sell it? Am I being selfish by neither using it nor passing it along? Maybe.

So, now what? Sometimes I think about refinishing the top to something more my taste. When I’m in a mood to purge, I think about selling it to a local vintage furniture shop. They’d take good care of it, I think, find it a good home.To better understand Nana’s table, I could explore the history of 1950s furniture http://www.furninfo.com/Furniture%20World%20Archives/11320.

To better appreciate its primary material, I could read one of the many books that celebrate Formica.

 

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There are some good videos to get me started in an overhaul project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trDIjqCP6HY and my dad would also be a good resource, for the Pepto Bismal pink was actually his doing.  Formerly pale yellow and white-specked, Nana asked my dad to refinish the table to compliment her kitchen updates in the 1970s.

I am determined to give Nana’s table a new life, even if it means throwing a table cloth over it and using it for art and sewing projects in the basement for a while. I want to build new stories around it, while crafting with buttons and enjoying bourbon and Fig Newtons. Won’t you join me?