an odd little historical anecdote...

I was someplace recently with a daughter, sitting down to a meal, and someone said: if you sit over there, you will not have to get up to go to the kitchen. My response was that I was always the first one to sit down in the house where I grew up, as it was all bench seating, and anyone who scootched in first, was definitely safe from having to get up for requested items. F. questioned me about my response - and honestly, it's been so long since the era of scootching I'd put it to rest in the dusty, neglected, ignored corners of my memory.

The table was ample for the  four of us, two parents, and older brother and myself. And it was homemade, built by my dad, in a trestle-style. Made of wood, with a plywood top, eventually covered with Formica in a wood grain. Now that I think of it, I clearly remember sitting facing my brother, who obviously would scoot in on the bench before our Dad would sit down. My mom and I were sitting with backs against a wall that no longer exists. My Dad and brother were opposite, the two of them facing the blank wall. So my mom and I had the view of the kitchen, with cupboards lining the wall, along with stove. This is how I learned to always close cupboard doors, to not have to look at them gaping wide while sitting and eating a meal.

The bench went around three sides of the table, so the person who was sitting at the end, with back towards the big wide window was most definitely corralled. If you were at the end and needed to get out, everyone between you and freedom had to get up - or if you were small enough, you could slip down off the bench and wend your way out under, through all the legs between your person and freedom. Which happened often, as you can imagine how little people eat, loose patience, and are ready to wiggle on to the next activity long before adults, with their civility, manners, conversations will allow them to dash out the door.

In the many years since the Era of Scootching, my dad took the wall out, removed the benches, did away with the large rectangular table, and hand built a round one that sat in the same spot for many years. I have the clearest memory of seeing the two of them sitting at the round pine table. Drinking coffee and looking out the kitchen window, watching hummingbirds, busily swooping around feeders and a red-blooming honeysuckle vine he planted right by the window to attract the birds for their enjoyment.