Thursday, July 28, 2022

The dining room table where I shared meals with my mother and listened to her many stories moved with me from California to Minnesota in 2019. My mom was three years gone by then, and the table did not fit in my little living room/ dining room after I made my second Minneapolis move.One afternoon we borrowed a hole saw from our neighbor, and the once stately dining room table became a patio table.
It was a classy addition to the backyard. Then this happened.
My mom had a lot of skills/pastimes/hobbies. She could knit, crochet, sew, macramé, fix things. And she was an expert trash-picker. A gold pocket watch, a wooden baby cradle, a big box of very nice baby and toddler clothes, a gold ring with a giant genuine amethyst. Books, paintings, antique dishes. What she didn't keep, she gave away or sold at garage sales.I've inherited the trash-picker gene, but now with the existence of my local Buy Nothing group, I get to browse through other people's cast-offs without lifting the lids of their trash cans or stalking the alleys. We got a little Buy Nothing patio table after the tree fell, but I've been watching Buy Nothing for the past couple months for a bigger one. Here it is.
Getting it into my hatchback was a bit dicey. Good thing that bag of clothes for Goodwill was still in the back seat, so we could tie the hatch shut.
The past couple of days the table has been undergoing a transformation.
My mom would be so thrilled.
And soon I'll be giving away the little table on Buy Nothing. I love how that works.

3 comments:

Sandra said...

I have you on my blog roll so I knew you back when I was blogging actively. I've come back. I live about 25 miles west of Minneapolis. I like your new table and the idea of Buy Nothing.

S Kay Murphy said...

I love that! I'm a big fan of recycling in the sense of finding the treasures that others have no use for and making them work. (And I am known for giving things away on Craigslist when they still have life in them. Because why not?) Good for you! (I'm still sad about the dining room table, though.)

Sandra said...

Good job - the new table is beautiful.