Necessity -- 1975

Many hobbies start with necessity.  Sandy and I had no furniture when we were married, so Sandy’s Grandmother gave us a piece out of the old house.  I took it to the farm and refinished it.  If you are wondering, the naked kid is my younger brother, Mike.  The piece has layers of paint, with the last layer seen in the picture.  Grandmother used the cabinet to store her dished, flour and as the counter space in the kitchen.  It was originally a dry sink with the door in front hinging down to roll out flour for bread.  The inside was painted white.
 

The cabinet today. 

Grandfather Wilson, John Alex Wilson, bought this cabinet from a farmer in Indiana for $79, before he was married.  This was the only piece of kitchen furniture at the farm house of Grandfather and Grandmother Wilson that stored all the kitchen supplies and pots and pans.  The bigger door at the left was the medicine cabinet on the farm.  The silverware was in the top drawer, the cutlery was in the middle door and the spices were on the bottom drawer.

The flour was stored in the bottom bin.  Pots and pans were stored in the big door at the bottom.  Newspapers were stored on top of the cabinet.  Grandfather put Aunt Margaret on the top the cabinet to hide her from her sisters when they played hide and seek.  Linens were stored in the side drawers facing the wall.

The gun above the cabinet was my great grandfather's Peter Owen.  It is a muzzle loader shotgun used in the Civil War, per my grandfather.  My grandfather was a circuit rider preacher for the Methodist Church.