RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Tuesday, September 22, 2009

My mom's kitchen -- again!

Once again I've been thinking about my mom's kitchen.  I watch a lot of HGTV and the kitchens they have on those programs are, well, let me be frank here, wonderful.  But who has kitchens like those?  Now, I have a wonderful kitchen.  I love my kitchen, but it will never be featured on HGTV. 

My mom's kitchen was small.  It was what is billed as an "eat-in" kitchen.  We had a table in the middle.  Nowdays, it would be an island, albeit a small one.  And that magic "work" triangle?  It did not exist in my mom's kitchen unless you removed the table.  If the table was gone, you could say you had that triangle.

Who ever heard of a "work triangle" in a kitchen back in those years?  I first heard of it when I was taking a course in interior decorating in college in 1970 -- it was, I thought, an easy elective.  But the "work triangle" was something only decorators were thinking about and putting into text books which would produce decorators that made those types of kitchens ten years later.

The "work triangle" was not a necessary item for my mom.  She cooked well without that old triangle, and I learned to cook without it.  I guess God knew I wouldn't have a "triangle" in my life for many, many years, and he was preparing me to make do, as my mom did.  In every apartment or house in which we lived, there was never that magical triangle, until we moved to where we now reside.  I managed, just as my mom managed, although I think my mom did it better than I did.

I recall when I was first married and experimenting with a different dish every day, I came up with some really good eats.  But then I had children.  Children who only wanted hot dogs and macaroni and cheese!  When my girls got to be teens, that changed, and we three were able to start with the experimenting again.  Oh, happy day!

Now, in my mind's eye I'm back in my mom's kitchen -- that's the one with the stainless steel counter (now in style), the refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom (now, in style), a mandatory gas range (now in style), and the table (now called an island).  I guess her kitchen wasn't so bad after all!

ttfn

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