The smell of home-baked bread and of Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies fills our apartment. The bread is for Sunday dinner at the mission, and the cookies for lunch at sewing on Monday at the Poughkeepsie Mission.
Laurence will be home from his job at Elmhurst Hospital for lunch at 1 p.m. We’ll eat at the small table in the kitchen. There have been times when we ate at the table by those windows that I told you about in the last blog. There’s more light and more of a view (the houses across the street) from the living area, but it’s more convenient to eat in the kitchen where we can stay seated and still reach the cabinet, the microwave, and the utensil drawer – “Honey, will you get me a fork?”
Former unit boys called it a submarine kitchen because the room is so tiny. I remember how Martha (Renno) Bousiquot’s dad – a big man – stood in the kitchen door and laughed at its smallness when they came to visit before Maxeau and Martha married. I’m sure it didn’t make Martha anymore desirous of living in the city to see how she’d be cooking in a kitchen with one little countertop.
Laurence gets the coffeemaker ready, so it automatically starts in the morning. It sits on a stand that has a shelf for mugs and another with a basket where I have recipes. I found the stand waiting to be picked up by the garbage truck, and a former unit boy carried it home for me. It is made with wooden pegs instead of nails, so I know it is very old. I wish I knew its story.
Most evenings, Laurence makes tea in the kitchen to serve to us from a small English teapot. It may have been a gift from Aunt Irene when I taught school at Grant over 40 years ago.
That reminds me of how a lady asked if she could squish beside me on the bus ride home from Trader Joe’s. I said she could though I felt a little grumpy about it. I told her, “We used to sit like this all the time before the pandemic.”
She replied, “I’m afraid. We don’t go to the movies anymore. Now we enjoy the little things. In the evening, I have hot tea and a snack with my family.”
Enjoy the little things! Berniece
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An Ordinary Life 
Someday I hope to eat a meal in your kitchen and have tea from that teapot. 🤍
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I hope so too, but we use the dining table in the living area for guests. 🙂
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I love it, Berneice I can just picture you in your little kitchen
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There’s nothing quite like hot tea with milk in it. If I get out my Russian podstakannik to drink it from I feel especially elegant and nostalgic. I can nearly feel the cold drafty train swaying across the snow covered wilds between Moscow, Russia, and Kharkiv, Ukraine.
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Can’t wait to come see you again! We left a small part of our hearts in New York 🤍
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I’d love to sip tea with you in your quaint submarine kitchen sometime ..
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Many happy precious memories of your kitchen. 🥰
It may be small but the food made in there was Filled with love and So delicious 😋
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I love this blog, Bernice. ❤ I can picture everything and would LOVE to pop in for a bit. It’s been so long… we’re coming back someday. – Rachel
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Reading your blog posts and letters gives me a little thrill. I’m filled with nostalgia as I think of our time in New York. “Tiny living” inspires me.
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I have always enjoyed my time spent in your apartment! I would love to have some ethnic food with you again at your table. Hoping to visit again soon.
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I love that cozy little kitchen. We’ve had some delicious meals from the cook that presides over it!! And had some good visiting over the dish water there. Thanks again!♡
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Aww That kitchen !!!! It always intrigued me too! But it was the visiting that was the best!! We wanna come back!
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It’s nice to picture you in this kitchen, but the times in the Chin apartment in Woodside with you and Laurence are the memories that we cherish. I’m waiting for the next post!
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We were young then, and those were such fun times together!
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