Monday Memory: The Corner Cabinet

July 30, 2007

I can't post pictures, so let me describe the Corner Cabinet. It is about 8 feet tall, made of dark wood. The family legend goes that old Samuel Cummins cut down a cherry tree from his home in Virginia in the early 1800s and made a wagon out of it, on which he and his wife, Lucinda, piled their belongings and moved to Southern Illinois. The wagon was then made into this same Corner Cabinet, which has been in our house in all of my memory.

It has always been our game cabinet, and I believe the games have never changed. Today my kids are thrilled all over again with Avalanche (a marble game), Cootie, and Chinese checkers. There are odds and ends of a dozen decks of cards, broken army guys, Matchbox cars, and the remnants of another dozen board games. The Quest for the Magic Ring was an early (1980s) Lord of the Ring game. Nobody would ever play it with Stephen because it was so complicated. Pit was my favorite all-family game. I loved the noise and yelling "Wheat-wheat-wheat-wheat" and the chance to ring that shiny orange bell.

The cabinet itself is perfect. My brother Peter and I taunt each other about who will claim it ultimately. The problem is that it's so big, no one can imagine how to move it out. Peter says we'll have to cut it in half, but like King Solomon with the mothers and the baby, I'll relent before a chainsaw massacres that beautiful cabinet. Maybe I'll win it after all...