It all started with a faithful mom looking for some kinship and a magnolia tree that quite literally owes its roots to the White House.
About nine years ago, Kristin Schell decided to plan a neighborhood backyard get-together. There was just one problem: she forgot she didn’t have much in the way of lawn furniture.
Figuring a picnic table would give her the biggest bang for her buck, she ordered two from her local Lowe’s. After the party, she placed one of the tables under the beautiful magnolia tree in the front yard of her Austin, Texas home.
The tree, as it turns out, traces back to a magnolia tree planted at the White House by President Andrew Jackson in memory of his late wife Rachel.
A century after Jackson’s era, when First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson first set eyes on the tree, she loved it so much that she took six of its cuttings and planned to grow more trees from them.
She gave one of the saplings to then-White House Press Secretary George Christian, who after some prodding from his wife, planted it in the front yard of their Austin, Texas home—which is where Ms. Schell now lives.
It would be just about a half century later that Ms. Schell’s soon-to-be-famous picnic table would sit under the same, now fully-grown, imposing magnolia tree. “It literally kind of takes my breath away,” Ms. Schell said. One day, a thought occurred to her, “like a lightbulb going off in your brain.” Instead of doing glitter projects and pizza nights in the backyard, “what if we did them in our front yard?” And so, she left the table where it was and brightened it up by painting it her favorite turquoise color. Soon, her neighbors took up a seat at the table for some casual conversation.
That was just the beginning.
Little did she know that a happenstance and her neighborly gesture would end up fostering what has become an international icon, a book deal, and, ultimately, a vibrant beacon of hope that cellphones and social media can still be second to old-fashioned get-togethers.
Turquoise Tables can now be found in all 50 states—and beyond. One sits outside a country pub in Dublin, Ireland. A scatter of them are found Down Under throughout Australia. There’s even a group of military moms in London who have a weekly social at their turquoise table. Needless to say, Ms. Schell’s vibrantly-colored furnishing brought new meaning to “table talk.”
Ms. Schell, who started a registry for the turquoise table trend she started, said there are literally thousands of them worldwide. She highlights some on her community web page found here, and to help her turquoise table community find each other, Kristin also created the hashtag #frontyardpeople. “People in countries I’ve never even heard of have written to me,” she beamed.
Many have posted about feeling less depressed after putting out their turquoise table and making connections with people, revealing it as a sort of “turquoise” cure for the blues. In Waverly, Nebraska, a group of neighbors hold what they call “gab fests” at their turquoise table and also a book club for whoever wants to attend. A dog owner in Kalamazoo, Michigan advertises her turquoise table for a place for other dog-walkers “to have a place to rest” and talk.
The tables have also inspired acts of charity with a Canadian family in St. Stephen, New Brunswick using theirs to hold a Coat For Kids drive. Even the youth have embraced these mesmerizing mesas, with many gracing college campuses including Austin Community College and Vanderbilt University.
Churches have also found ways to use these tables to reach out to their local community.
The Cape Neddick Baptist Church—a quaint historic church complete with a steeple bell that graces a side road in the coastal reach of York, Maine—had barely put the finishing touches on its new turquoise table when passersby took up the invitation to enjoy a peaceful respite there.
“Turquoise is an eye-capturing color so it’s easy to catch people’s attention,” said the church’s pastor Jack Dame. “It tells people, ‘you are welcome here.’”
He is hoping the table, which incidentally sits under the church’s own imposing American linden tree, will create a casual place for people to come pray. “We’re actually hoping to add a second one,” he said.
A Utah couple visiting the New England area for the first time was having a hard time finding a place to sit and eat their bagged lunches in the tourist-riddled seacoast community, when they just happened to randomly turn down the road to the church.
As pastor Dame predicted, the table caught Bill and Glenda’s eye.
Christians themselves, the married couple of 49 years didn’t know anything about the story of the Turquoise Table. After hearing it, Glenda called it “something God would definitely approve of” in a world that is sometimes “a little too overrun with ‘No Trespassing,’ ‘Keep Out,’ and ‘No Parking’ signs.”
Unwittingly, Ms. Schell, an active member of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Austin and who teaches Bible classes in her home, has found a way to create common ground for people of different faiths.
In addition to the Maine Baptist church, her registry shows that Catholic churches, synagogues, and even a Jain temple are all using turquoise tables as an outdoor community outreach.
The bright-bench phenomenon has landed her on the TODAY show, radio shows, and in major magazines including Good Housekeeping. She also penned a book, “The Turquoise Table: Finding Community and Connection in Your Own Front Yard,” with heartwarming tales, spiritual advice about how she overcame life’s challenges, and recipes along with some food for thought about the importance of hospitality in our everyday lives. “I am hoping the turquoise tables will serve as a local place where people feel safe to open their arms and hearts up to one another in a world where we are locked up in our houses and cars and buried in our phones,” she said.
