Setting The Table

Family "get-togethers" where a special event.  It was one of those times that the best cooks in Eastern Kentucky would gather to demonstrate their culinary skills.  Setting the table at these events would take a special kind of organization and cooperation.   The picture below shows such a "get-together".

The year was 1957.  The table was the back of a hay wagon. [A wheel can be seen in the lower left.]  Picnic baskets, Mason Jar boxes; all kinds of bowls, plates, pans, and lots of growling stomachs are shown.  Care was always taken to get things just right, and the desserts were my first plan of attack.  [All the other folks started at the other end.]  The oldest of the family were always placed first in line.

Women were in charge.  They set the table, arranged the order, placed all the dishes, and kept the kids at bay that were circling the tables.  Trying to grab a fried chicken leg in advance was always a challenge.  The men would sit around in their hats and talk, or play horseshoes while the women got the table just right. [The men can be seen in narrow gap between the standing women.]  Setting the table in 1957...how would it be done today...setting the table in 2013.