Dinner At Grandmother's House

My grandparents lived in an old house in North Carolina. It was weathered and worn. It was unique in that the main house and the kitchen/dining room were not connected except by a long porch. I am told this was to prevent the whole house from burning down in the event of a fire in the kitchen. There were eight children born to them and from that, 21 grandchildren. When we would go "home" from Virginia for holidays, we would all crowd around the dining room table. It had 4 leaves and could seat about 18 people. The youngest children sat at a separate table over to the side. But, when I went to stay with Grandmama in the summer, several of my cousins and I could sit at the big table and watch Grandmama carve a ham or slide bisquits from a hot tin sheet to a gleaming white plate. We always had butter and jelly. All this is seared in my memory in a romantic and wonderful way. The truth is, there was no bathroom in the house, so we all had to use the outhouse. That was interesting and different to a city girl!