usadeepsouth.com
by Aileen Ridings Bennett
There is such magic in a kitchen table. I have often thought if mine could talk how much it would reveal. It has collected such things as tears, coffee, spilled milk, smeared jelly, good-bye kisses and school books. If the top became transparent, it would show grocery lists, notes to and from my children, poetry, and scores of secret daydreams and fantasies quickly written and thrown away.
If my kitchen table had feelings, it too would reveal a warmth in tousled-haired little boy smiles in the morning, hurt for the teenaged daughter problems, and would wrap its arms around my friend who feels she is growing old. Sometimes I wonder if it cringes when harsh words are spoken over it and feels the pain of our not being able to take them back.
The square of wood in my kitchen holds many memories, as well as reams of paper on which I have reflected the woes of wife and motherhood, the love and laughter of a once six-placemat family that somehow, too quickly, dwindled to two.
AILEEN RIDINGS BENNETT confirms in her writing style she is a dyed-in-the-wool Southerner. Born in a small town in Tennessee, she moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, growing up in a "strange and secret town and era." Aileen has four children, two daughters and two sons, and an engineer husband, who was transferred often, the family having the opportunity to travel and live in many parts of the country. Life, Love and Laughter, a column she carried with her, was published in newspapers wherever she lived, being quickly picked up by surrounding cities. Aileen studied creative writing under Arizola Magnenat, a published author and journalist. When her husband retired from his company in Atlanta, Georgia, the couple decided to return to Oak Ridge. "Our placemats dwindled to two," she says, giving her time to write her first novel, The Annie Chase Story. Aileen pursues other writing interests, such as free-lance essays and articles and writing for her beloved Oak Ridge High School alumni.
To preorder The Annie Chase Story, ISBN:1-933016-31-0, Behler Publications (October 2005), please visit www.behlerpublications.com.
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