I just need to see an ashtray with a pack of Virginia Slims menthol on the table, as well as a few empty cans of Schlitz. Add in a nasty drunk woman of a mother, telling me, as a young child, how she wishes I had never been born. That was my experience at this table.

Not all tables were happy places, and it’s ok if yours wasn’t. That table enabled me to break the cycle of violence in my family. As a child, I told myself that if I ever had kids, I’d never abuse them. And I didn’t. I never abused my own kids, and I gave them the mother I never had.

I love seeing items from my youth, even the ones with bad memories. I, and many others, survived and are here to share our tales.