Chandelier serves dual purpose

We were doing the Sunday morning rush. Start dinner, push my grade school step-sons to get dressed, clear the breakfast dishes and set the dining room table for dinner. I checked the potatoes, snapped the tablecloth across the antique oak table and hastily arranged dishes and silverware around it.
Thirty minutes later we were ready to be on our way to church, except my husband couldn’t find his car keys, our only set. A couple ounces of mis-placed metal tied us to the house. In vain we looked in the toy box, under the bed, in my husband’s jacket packets and beneath couch cushions.
Eventually we realized we were not going to church. I finished fixing dinner while the rest of the family scoured the corners looking for keys. After a subdued early lunch, we cleared the table. I gathered up the tablecloth for the laundry basket and found the keys under the tablecloth and dishes. My husband put them safely in his pocket, promising to get several sets of duplicates made the next day.
The extra keys helped. If we couldn’t find the original set, we simply grabed one of the spares and assumed we would find the original ater. It was a good system except as we added babies who loved jangling keys, lost keys had a tendency to stay lost. With children many items have a tendency to permanently disappear, items such as scissors and shears that fit perfectly into little hands.
I hate looking for things. Something had to be done with our intractable disappearing keys.
As we ate dinner I found the perfect solution just over our heads. Our elaborate chandelier had at least a dozen curls of metal perfect for holding key rings, children’s scissors and sewing shears. I began hooking’em up high anytime I came across a stray set of keys or scissors. Our scrambles for lost items subsided.
The decorated chandelier became part of the background of our daily existence. I did not see the keys and scissors until I needed them. I did not realize how much they had faded into the background until we invited another young family over for super.
The father looked up at the sharp, pointed pair of shears, aiming right at his eye. “You have a problem keeping track of your shears?” he commented dryly.
Chagrined, I admitted we did and began quickly lifting off scissors, shears and key chains from the chandelier. I dropped them in a kitchen drawer until they left. As soon as they were safely out of the house, I rehung everything. He was the only guest through all the years we used the chandelier as a key rack who ever said anything.
A couple years later we moved away from the chandelier with its plethora of metal loops. We started to lose keys again. I yielded to the main stream of society and bought a key rack and designated a drawer for scissors and shears.
Although our children are grown, we still keep several sets of keys. But our dinner guests dine under a chandelier free of dangling, dining room decor.


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