Friday Night 10-27-23 – Photo by Tucker
I haven’t blogged about “Friday Night” here at the house for quite a while — probably for more than a year. But when Tucker’s picture arrived this morning, it so captured the warmth and feeling of last evening’s gathering that I felt the need to put words to my thoughts.
Nyel and I conceived the idea for “Friday Nights” shortly after we moved into “the family” house in the late 1990s. This big old “farmhouse” as Willard’s wife always called it, has been in the H.A. Espy family since 1902. That was the year my grandparents moved in with their first two children, the third (Suzita) already on the way. By the time my mother was born in 1911, there were six children, with little Albert already buroed and Medora destined to follow a few years hence.
Friday Night Conversation 2012
Nevertheless, with five active children, my gregarious grandfather and gracious grandmother in residence, it was the gathering place for village children of all ages as well as for neighbors, visitors from afar and for the many relatives who came and stayed sometimes for weeks on end. Once I asked my mother which of the four upstairs bedrooms was hers and which sister did she share it with. What a convoluted answer I got! It all depended upon who and how many might be visiting, whether it was summer and they could set up cots on the back porch and which of the oldest sisters might be home from boarding school and might have brought a “chum” with her!
Then, in 1972 when my folks retired to Oysterville, this place became Entertainment Central for various bridge and canasta players, for cocktail hours with my mother’s infamous hors d’oeuvres, and dinner parties with local teens acting as “servers” and kitchen help. (At least one of those young people went on to become a chef in a southern Oregon city.) And, of course, the house also became known for their wonderful Christmas parties.
A Friday Night in 2012
So, when Nyel and I moved in, we soon realized that the house needed people. Just two of us rattling around were not enough to keep it feeling like home. We decided to ask our friends to come on Friday nights from 5:00 to 7:00 when they could — they would bring an appetizer we’d supply the beverages. And once you’d been invited, the invitation was forever if you so chose.
Only the times Nyel was hospitalized on a Friday and, of course during Covid, did Friday Nights cease. And, although we’ve had one or two Fridays over the years that just two or three people arrived, usually we have a dozen or more. Last night there were thirteen of us and it was perfect — for part of the time we all talked “together” and, later (as shown in the picture) we gravitated into twos and threes, pursuing diverse subjects.
It’s one of the best traditions ever! I’m so glad we began it. May it long continue!
