The Kid's Table...

     This Thanksgiving Eve, something suddenly brought to my remembrance "the kid's table."  Whenever we gathered at my grandmother's home or later at my uncle's home, there was always "a kid's table."  We who were young relished "the kid's table" at Thanksgiving or during other family celebrations, where laughter abounded. 
     I remember one year when I was hesitant to eat something on my plate - as an elementary student, and my grandmother "Sugar," walking through the pantry where "the kid's table" was strategically placed.  She pointed to the nearest window and blurted out, "Santa's watchin'; y'all...better clean those plates...you and 'Bruce-y.'"
     Years later at my Uncle Bill's in Georgia, we still occupied "the kid's table" at the holiday gathering in the mid-1970's.  We were collegiate aged, but the feel was still the same.  We were still the next generation to wear the mantle of serious deliberation in a difficult world - with inflation, energy crises, and limited job opportunities.
     Somehow, I wish I could go back to those moments - when we shared "the kid's table" right after the Cuban Missile Crisis or years later when the world seemed so awry.  But now I'm the patriarch with many of the same aspirations and doubts as I had two thirds of the way through the last century.
     And now I occupy the main table, wishing I could go back again and have just one more conversation with all those who once occupied the main table and have passed forward the mantle of leadership.  Little eyes will soon peer my way, and what I can and hope to offer is a word of Thankfulness...Thankfulness that the world will be in good hands when these little ones leave the security of "the kid's table" to take our places at the main....