kitchen

Then back to the grocery for fresh yeast and the good Italian cheese, and finally, at last, to the kitchen.

As a youngster, Murphy says he had a nightly ritual where he would repeatedly go into the kitchen and check the stove to see if the gas was on.

I set it on a shelf on top of the stove with the salt, pepper, and kitchen matches.

Or the yellow Formica kitchen, with its Pyrex hot plate, wall-mounted radio, original Eames barstools and drop-leaf dining table still intact — all charming throwbacks to a simpler time.

But it had also bowed, curving and collapsing a little like a kitchen sponge when you squeeze it between your thumb and fingers.