Good morning, Jerry!

WHen I was young the kitchen table was where we would stay up all night after a movie, drinking cocoa--when I was old enough, red wine--and set the world to rights. We organized a civil rights march around it once, and discussed endless philosophical themes, and sometimes broke out instrrments and made music. It was also, of course, the site of a lot of childhood meals.

Everywhere I have lived since, it was, as you say, a gathering place where the real living went on--not the living room. I built my first wire-wrap board on a kitchen table, too. Wonderful place. Anyone sitting at it is welcome and safe; that's what kitchens are. It's the physical equipment of letting someone into your heart. In our house, too, it's the first place you go to host a visitor.

A