Kitchen table, rickity chairs and flowered oil cloth

Old as dirt · May 16, 2008

Remember when the kitchen table was the only place you could mix up a cake, do your homework, play a game of cards. I was thinking about the Oil cloth that we used to buy to cover the table. Course our tables then were just tables, nothing fancy . Sometimes the chairs had loose legs or mismatched. Just a table. But if that table could talk. I remember making Devils food cake, I would get all the stuff together on the table before I started mixing. And if I spilled something there was that oil cloth there to catch it. Mom did all her canning on that table. I did my home work at the table. And Dad drank his coffee from a saucer at the table. I am not even sure you can buy oil cloth anymore. There was a light that hung down over that table with a light bulb in it, you pulled a string to turn it on. Now we have granite counter tops, and a dinning room table with fancy chairs that may get used twice a year if we are lucky. I think the old table in the kitchen was better with its bright oil cloth with flowers all over it.
Old as Dirt

Mzkitty · May 16, 2008

Oil cloth. Oh wow. My mother used that when I was little. She always got WHITE. Never any other color oil cloth. It had to be white. I hated it.

LOL.

Now, I always have to have pretty cloth table cloths on my tables.

You stop bringing back all these old memories, Old As Dirt!!!

ETA: you know I'm just kidding, right?

I really love your stories.

sandra · May 16, 2008

Here you go old as dirt, you can still buy those pretty old patterns.

http://spipinecrk.com/oilcloth/oilcloth_yardage.htm

Warren Bone · May 16, 2008

I, too, remember those table cloths. I think ours was checkered, red and white.

We had this little table that had leaves on the side so you could raise them up and make for some more table-top. It was white (and someone in my family probably still has mom's old table...and mom is still doing well and will be ninety years old next month!)

Good "backthinking" Old as Dirt!

warren.

RONCARLA · May 16, 2008

I don't remember oilcloth but I do remember the 1950s grey table and chairs that my grandparents had before they got my parents old dining table in the 1970s.

My Grandma made everything from scratch ... no mixes, pre-made or anything like that. I remember making plum jelly with her, fried donuts and lots of cakes and cookies.

Those were the best memories of my childhood. My grandparents were poor West Texas sharecroppers but they were rich in my heart.

I miss them dearly.

Amazed · May 16, 2008

We had the oil cloth on the table too. I really couldn't tell you what the actual table looked like because it was always covered. The chairs were painted. I remember one of the cross bars under the chair wouldn't stay in the hole anymore so someone had wired it. That was painted right over too. :lkick:

I also remember if you had visitors in the evening they could never go home without a little bite to eat. Out would come the toaster, the coffee, the homemade jam, some cheddar cheese and a plate of homemade cookies. No chips and dip or soda - just more like an early breakfast. Of course this would take place at the late old hour of 9:30. That was a late night. :lol:

Sigh. I sure miss those days and those people.

Fred · May 16, 2008

My grandmother had an oilcloth tablecloth. I have many fond memories of sitting at that table with them when I was a kid.

A couple of months ago I came across this link, which has a lot of pictures from the USA between 1939 and 1969. Even though my memories are from a little after that time, one particular picture really stirred some nostalgic memories of being at grandma's (though there's no oilcloth on this table) :

sandra · May 16, 2008

Thank you so much for this link! I found this picture that took me back to being at the fair with my parents in my feed sack dress that my gramma sewed for me.

UncurledA · May 16, 2008

Sounds like my house when I was a kid. Man, Fred, that picture you posted - thar's some good eatin' !!

Amazed · May 16, 2008

My grandmother wore a bib apron like the mother in the first picture has on. I knew if she didn't have it on we were going someplace. (She also wore corsettes every day of life.

Fred · May 16, 2008

sandra said:
Thank you so much for this link! I found this picture that took me back to being at the fair with my parents in my feed sack dress that my gramma sewed for me.

Something interesting I noticed about the pictures on that link --- with the exception of the Rosie-the-riveter type pictures, all the women and girls are wearing dresses. Sure is a lot different from these days.

UncurledA said:
Sounds like my house when I was a kid. Man, Fred, that picture you posted - thar's some good eatin' !!

I know it. I used to LOVE to eat at Grandma's, just for the biscuits at every meal!

xtreme_right · May 16, 2008

I don't remember the oilcloth covered tables either. I was born in the sixties. I remember my parents and grandparents had a formica table with metal legs and a leaf. It had a starburst design on it. I'd love to have that table now.

One of the earliest memories of my Nana was standing on a chair next to her "helping" her make the crust for the peach cobbler. We didn't eat the cake type cobbler. Hers was a double-crust cobbler. When she died this February. I asked my sisters and cousins if they minded if I got her pastry cutter. They looked at me like I was crazy. I love that old thing and find every chance to use it now.

xr

Michiana MaJo · May 16, 2008

Just type in oilcloth tablecloths in Google, and you'll find several sources for some very pretty and colorful patterns! My table is formica, but these tablecloths sure are nostalgic.

cider · May 16, 2008

xtreme_right said:
I don't remember the oilcloth covered tables either. I was born in the sixties. I remember my parents and grandparents had a formica table with metal legs and a leaf. It had a starburst design on it. I'd love to have that table now.

One of the earliest memories of my Nana was standing on a chair next to her "helping" her make the crust for the peach cobbler. We didn't eat the cake type cobbler. Hers was a double-crust cobbler. When she died this February. I asked my sisters and cousins if they minded if I got her pastry cutter. They looked at me like I was crazy. I love that old thing and find every chance to use it now.

xr

My Grandma used a piece of oiled plywood for a cutting board. Everyone thought I was nuts when I asked for that after she died.
Oh the homemade bread that was cut on that board!

expose' · May 16, 2008

Fred!
Those pictures in the link are wonderful!

They bring back such great memories for me and for my parents time.

Freeholder · May 16, 2008

I've been looking at what Google turned up for oilcloth tablecloths, and they are all vinyl, none of them are really oilcloth. I'll keep looking, but I have a feeling the real stuff isn't being made anymore!

Mom sent me a few pictures she scanned in of our homestead in Alaska -- these were taken about 1960. The first one is the cabin we lived in, then our water source -- a spring at the edge of the lake that never froze. The picture was taken at minus sixty F.

The last one is my parent's wedding picture -- they were married in Delta Junction, Alaska, in 1956. I tried to upload a couple of other pictures but they are TIF files, and I don't know how to change them to something this software will accept. Mom has some cute pictures of my brothers and me when we were little on the homestead -- one was taken when we were sitting in three cardboard boxes pretending to be a train. Kids didn't need much in the way of toys back then, LOL!

Kathleen

Maryh · May 16, 2008

I remember oil cloth. We didn't have it on the table but I had to use it to cover my pencil box every year for school. I loved the smell of it. Speaking of the girls wearing dresses in the pictures, when I went to the Univ. of Dayton, there was a dress code and the girls had to wear dresses or skirts. Pants or shorts only for gym class. Pantsuits became popular the second year I was teaching. Where did the years go!!!!!

Irish · May 16, 2008

I remember in early grade school we would bring in old oilcloth table clothes and trace a bunny or kitty cat. Cut out a front and back, use yarn to stitch around the edges to join front and back. Stuff with old paper to fill it out and finish sewing it up. Can you imagine today's schools allowing kindergarten to 3rd graders to use needles to sew stuff together ? :LOL

MaureenO · May 16, 2008

Here's my kitchen table with its oil cloth on it. Pay no mind to the 12 gauge there, I just cleaned it. :whistle:

Maureen

Kitchen table, rickity chairs and flowered oil cloth

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