I spent several summers as a teenager living with my grandmother on her farm in the Shenandoah Valley near the small town of Monterey, Virginia. I was always surprised when folks would just drop by to see us.They never called first. Sometimes, they would bring us peas, beans or tomatoes from their gardens, other times they would just sit on the porch and talk or ask for my grandmother’s permission to fish on her property. I asked her about this, and she just laughed and said at least they didn’t come for supper.
During the depression, having enough to eat took the work of everyone, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, as well as my mother and her sisters. They worked together in the garden. Like most farmers, they “put up” vegetables, jellies and meat, stored potatoes in the cellar over winter, raised chickens to eat and to sell, sold eggs, and made their own butter and cream. My grandfather hunted game and fished.
Whenever someone stopped by the farm close to supper time, they were always invited to eat with the family. Counting on this open invitation, folks would time their visits to coincide with the table being set. They knew, before knocking on my grandparents’ door, they would be invited to supper. So, instead of having to ask for food, they came to “visit” trusting in the goodwill of their neighbors and friends.
Have we lost the gracious gift of open invitation? If so, how do we invite the spirit of generous invitation back into our lives? Can we stretch what we have made for ourselves to meet the needs of others? Inviting others to the table doesn’t require having extra, only a willingness to share what we do have.
~Lisa Kiel
Your words brought back wonderful memories of my childhood on a farm. We grew our own food – cows, pigs, and chickens. We shared our bounty in the good years with neighbors and friends. All summer we gathered the vegetables from our garden, and spend many hours sitting on the front porch shelling peas, and butter beans and shucking corn. Our efforts to grow veggies in our yard now haven’t been very successful because we have many trees and lots of shade. I miss those homegrown veggies so much.
Thank you, Lisa, for your beautiful words which evoked so many good memories for me.
I remember my grandparents being this way too. I always tell my friends and family that they are welcome any time at my house and they can just pop up and see if we’re home. Most will call ahead of time to see what we are doing and if we are home. I think because people are more active in the evenings now that it’s hard to open that invitation into one’s home, and with the “perfectly clean home” expectations from social media some people are embarrassed to have people over in their possibly untidy home (pointing at me). But just like our body mentality, I have realized that my perfectly clean home mentality is unreasonable. So I invite people over, with an open invitation to come and see me and my family in our new home that is of course lived in very well.
Thank you for this Lisa.