Tale of the Traveling Dining Room Set

Our current china cabinet

We discussed the lineage of 'the junior dinette set' at Easter dinner. (Each piece is smaller than the typical dining room set.)

• A young married couple bought the set - table w/ butterfly leaf, six chairs, buffet and china cabinet.


• Their son, years later, married my mom's sister.


• My aunt's in-laws [the orig buyers] bought a new dining set for their 25th anniversary.


• When my aunt & uncle declined the old set, it was offered to my parents.


• It was our kitchen table until I was in HS, when we moved into a house with a DR. At that point, it became the DR set.


• While I was in college, my mom bought a gorgeous old full-size DR set from an old man whose wife had just died. The family was thrilled that another family was going to enjoy it. The junior set went in the basement.


• When I graduated from college, my mom and I painted the entire set gloss black. The six chairs were down to two. I picked up four bamboo chairs from a Goodwill-type place.


• It became our DR set after DH & I got married.


• Years later, when my dlilsis was graduating from college, we bought a DR set. The old set moved to my parents', temporarily.


• Dlilsis painted the set cream and rag-washed the china cabinet with brown. She got rid of the two remaining chairs. The four bamboo ones are in our basement.


• When she bought her condo AKA tiny place, the china cabinet moved into our basement.


• DD is agitating for the table and buffet since she's graduating in May.


• Dlilsis says DD has to wait until she and BIL buy a house. I'm guessing we're talking two years at the most.

My parents think the young couple bought the travelling set soon after they married in 1938, so it's around 70 years old.

DD says that NOBODY she knows in her age group has travelling furniture. She finds that incredibly sad. I do too. Yes, we have more furniture that's been passed around.