Georgetown Kitchen: Karen Abbott Interview, October 19, 2021

This is an old kitchen. This is a scene of a kitchen. Probably in Georgetown. At her grandmother's kitchen. Because that looks like my grandfather over there, and for the longest time, I called the refrigerator and ice box because that's what they had. And that's what that little brown piece is over there. An ice box. You put the ice in the top. And it kept the food cool. Here's an old wash tub. I used to get a bath in the wash tub. My great-grandmother took care of me in Georgetown. This is the kitchen table, looks like they've been making the baking something, making something to eat. That's a cake I think, a layer cake. Over here, you can't see that, well, it's a loaf of bread and looks like they're about to do some some canning in the mason jars. The stove is a coal stove, which is the first stove I remember, I got burned on it. The sink is the old farmhouse sink that you see now that's so popular. And it's got a lot of the kitchen bowls and she made all those things. My grandfather is sitting in the rocking chair, with his pipe in his mouth.

Who would the child be?

The child? It could be her. It could be her, that could be her brother. That's probably she and her brother. Her grandmother and her father. It looks like her face. And she and her brother, she's told him to stop doing something. She's got her hand up. Uh-huh. Lots of detail.

Did she craft her exhibits?

She just created them, although she could draw but she just it was just—the patience though, the patience that it took to do this. And she could talk for hours about them. This diorama could be called the Georgetown kitchen. This is my great grandmother's house. She lived at 22nd and N I mention that before? And, Georgetown as we know was one of the first areas to be gentrified. And my mother was so upset with my great grandmother and she sold the house for little of nothing. But that was the most money my great-grandmother had ever had. And she thought that it was she was rich. So, she sold that, she sold the house and she lived with her family after that. So one member of the family after another. Everybody was in Georgetown, but they all lived at her house. So after they grew up after became adults, they moved to Georgetown of course, left her. So she when she sold the house they had to move she had to move with you know, whichever, grandchild she could. She lived with us for a while. My mother was the oldest. She lived with the girls, mainly, I don't think she ever lived with the boys.

So what year was it when she sold the house?

Oh my gosh. I was, I was a baby. I mean, that had to be in the 50s. That was in the 50s. I didn't know anything about it, of course until later, but I remember the Georgetown house very well. It was the first my great-grandmother used to keep my brother and I during the week when my mother and father worked, and we would go home on the weekends. So that was home. Georgetown was home. The parades, and just the horses. It was just fun. The food trucks and the water ice man, and the fruit man, and everybody in the wagons with the horse-drawn carriage. There was nothing like it. Nothing like it. Right at the zoo was great.

Thank you.