Thanksgiving - Card Table Lessons

Happy Thanksgiving! Somewhere between sitting at the huge, ornate, and fancy dished dining room table, and being spoon fed strained peas and small chunks of cut up turkey from a high chair lies the card table at Thanksgiving. 

It's true in almost every American home. The Card Table, or maybe better known as the Kids Table. You know that table that sits adjacent to the main table and is the home of those not yet old enough to sit at the table of royalty some 5 feet away.  It's the place where the dishes are different. So is the table cloth, as well as the silver ware and certainly the conversation.  

It's the home of a few more spills and jiggling water glasses when someone is cutting their lukewarm turkey.  It's a rickety legged table with chairs that aren't very comfy, and certainly the home of not enough chairs.  Someone, or two -  is sitting on a piano bench, or an office chair.   And it is also the last bastion of childhood for that one person about 22 getting ready to graduate Akron U or Kent State. Who has to sit with the small kids still, because their rightful place has not yet opened up at the main table. Maybe next year.

So with that said one would think that the Card, or Kids Table is as remote as an Antarctic outpost, and the Main Table is the lap of luxury on the Riviera.  But in reality, it's not at all true.  The Card Table is a place where much fun is had, and has much to teach us.  C'mon, where else can kids have an inappropriate dinner conversation without the parents hearing.  All the while silently learning valuable life lessons and memories that will be with them for a lifetime.

The Card Table Lessons are many as it teaches us all that patience is rewarded.  I mean, it does take the turkey about an hour to get there for some reason.  It shows that good things really do come to those who wait.  For many it's the first table they eat at without mom and dad hawking over them.  It also shows us that many times in life, better things that certainly lie ahead have to be earned over time  - as we watch the adults feast like kings at the stable table while we try not to collapse one of the semi-locked table legs.

All of this is good in the long run.  I think it's actually good for kids to see that. It makes them far less likely to flame out when their big moment arrives.  On that golden moment when they are officially summoned, and they too join the fabled table from on high. Or when a left-handed person is needed at the big table to sit on the end. 

In short, the Card, or Kids Table is like the minor leagues of eating.  You are warming up in the bullpen before entering the big game. Honing your mad skills until you are allowed to show them off at a later date.  It's also a Thanksgiving tradition that I quite frankly hope never really goes away.  I sat there, and I'm sure you did too.  It's a lifetime of giggling cousins bonding together at the best of holidays over a 3,000 calorie meal. And for the 22 year old still saddled there?  Next year you will probably be jettisoned to softer chairs, more elbow room, hotter turkey and fewer fart jokes during your meal. 

Long live the Card Table!  We salute you!  It's a place where kids can be kids during a big meal. Shall you continue to teach us all life lessons without even meaning to.   Happy Thanksgiving.