When I moved out of my parents’ house out on the farm six years ago, I didn’t have to twist my Mom’s arm too much to be allowed to take the family’s dining room set with me. I had always admired it and wanted it for my own someday. Besides, Mom was ready for something new.

I always thought of it as a family heirloom, as it was one of my parents’ first purchases when they were setting up household 50 years ago. They bought it used from Pete’s Trading Post (where Wabash Valley Eye is now on SR 57S), so we don’t really know exactly how old it is.

Although it’s almost priceless to me now, it was never a for-pretty-only piece; our family used it almost daily for as long as I can remember. I remember sitting around the table the day “Preach” Sommers came to Sunday lunch for the first time and Mom forgot to take the wax paper off the bottoms of the layer cake. We sure had a good laugh that day.

And I remember playing board games on it during family visits, like strategizing in a Scrabble matchup with my sister, Mom and Aunt Marilyn.

Mostly I remember my Mom pulled up next to the table in her wheelchair, cutting blocks or sewing quilt pieces with a sewing machine foot pedal rigged just right for an amputee.

But now that my own family has used the table and chairs for five years, it had begun to show its age. The chairs, once stout and sturdy, had begun to wobble.

As we were making plans for furniture in my new house (moving day is just around the corner), I contemplated what to do with the family heirloom. Could the rickety chairs be saved and perfected for a place for family dining in my new “great room?” I sure hoped so.

And, bless my nephew, who’s been a woodworking enthusiast since he was little, I promised him some cash if he could make my chairs “unwobbly.” Tinkering with one, he tore it apart, re-braced and re-glued it, and we were in business. Then, after he tore the remaining ones down, my dad and I spent Saturday mornings early this spring stripping, sanding and staining.

We aren’t quite done with the project, which is being varnished by professionals, but I can’t wait to get the upholstery on for the finishing touch.

I’ll carry the reminiscences from around that table with me for a lifetime, and hopefully it will have enough new life it in to lend us a few more memories.

mbrunson@washtimesherald.com