Jill's Journal: The little white, wooden cupboard

By: 
Jill Meier, Journal Editor
There’s a little, white wooden cupboard that’s stood the test of time – and generations of pint-sized cooks – in our family.
Behind its tiny doors, the cupboard shelves have held assorted mismatched teacups and saucers, miniature-sized pots and pans, teapots and baby bottles. With the right imagination, the white wooden cupboard – standing all of three-feet tall, if that – was all the kitchen that generations of wannabe cooks could ever want or need.
The sturdily constructed cupboard was first built for my mom when she was just a pint-sized cook herself. She guesses she was about 6 years old when she spied the gargantuan-like gift under the Christmas tree. That was nearly 75 years ago.
Over the years, Mom has told me about how when she and her sisters were little girls they played “house”, and the white, wooden cupboard, she said, was always front and center in their “house” setup. When she outgrew the cupboard, it was tucked away in storage for the next generation of wannabee cooks – namely me – to enjoy.
I honestly don’t remember when the white, wooden cupboard was passed on to me. I imagine it came when Grandma said, “It’s time for you to get it out of my house.” All I know is that it was part of my playthings from as far back as I can remember. And like my mom and her sisters, I, too, spent countless hours making pretend cakes, cookies and casseroles from the confines of the miniature-sized cupboard.
My childhood friend, Trish, and I also used our imaginations, converting the white cupboard to a desk or filing cabinet when we chose to play “school” or “office.” From our childlike view, the white, wooden cupboard could be nearly anything we could imagine it to be.
Not long after I outgrew the white cupboard, it was passed on to my younger cousins, Becky and Deidre. They, too, I expect, filled it with mismatched teacups and saucers and cooked up countless imaginary meals while the cupboard was in their possession.
A few years back, my Mom reclaimed the white, wooden cupboard, bringing it home for her great-granddaughters, Makena and Karly, to enjoy. Unbelievably so, when it came back to our family some 40 years later, the cupboard was still white. It had no visible creative crayon artwork nor had it been covered in colorful stickers, and all four doors, surprisingly so, were still tightly hinged.
At their tender age, I don’t reckon Makena and Karly are too concerned about the history behind the little white, wooden cupboard. Nor would I expect them to. But what I do hope is that someday, they too, will come to appreciate the history of the white, wooden cupboard, and someday, pass it on to their children with a short history lesson about the many wannabee cooks in our family who came before them.

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The Brandon Valley Journal

 

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Brandon, SD 57005
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