Silence!

My daughter, Liz came by the other day when I was making a silencer for my dining room table. We are usually fairly casual and don't have room to store table mats, but I wanted a silencer for when I want to use a table cloth. She told me that I should write this so her generation will know about things like silencers. The only kind they've seen, sad to say, are the ones attached to guns in action movies.

A silencer is a heavy cloth to use under a table cloth. It not only protects the table but can help to keep your tablecloth stay on straight. Another benefit is that you don't the noise of glasses, silverware and dishes.

You can use any heavy cloth for a silencer. I made mine from a mattress pad. Yes, of course, it had been sanitized. It was actually a fairly new one that had little use. I have also been known to use a light colored vinyl table cloth under my good table cloth, that way you can protect the table from spills. On for Thanksgiving, we use cafeteria style plastic folding tables. On those I use old quilts that have white backs then put my good linen cloths over them.