When I was a newlywed we had no money for furniture. A couple we knew living downstairs from us had a 'sugar daddy' who furnished their three room apartment with the best put-it-together-yourself furniture their parents credit card could buy. I was especially jealous of the whitewashed armoire that housed their TV with a remote. Our TV had none.
Then we saved up for our awning-striped blue and white overstuffed couch. It came from RC Willy and we found a flaw in it and talked the salesperson down an extra fifty bucks. When my older sister Rhonda saw the couch she mentioned to me that she had been married almost a decade before she and her husband bought a couch brand new. The fifty dollar mark down suddenly didn't seem as thrifty. Did I need to mention that we had been sitting on canvas directors chairs for 6 months while saving? No- my 6 months didn't really compare to her 10 years.
All the guilt washed away when I sat alone in the apartment for the first time on that fluffy blue cloud of impulsiveness. We paid in full for it and I felt entitled. I also couldn't wait for my next visitor to stop by and see my oasis of comfort. It matched our blue industrial carpet perfectly. Never mind that I would be stuck with a pastel blue and pink color palate way too long for my liking.
The most impractical part of the couch was that it was so light in color that it showed all the dirt. When, 15 months later, my spitty baby came along it showed all his projectile vomit stains as well. Scrub as I might it never seemed to come clean. We turned the cushions over several times before giving up on the poor sagging couch. It was nearly seven years from the purchase date when we replaced 'old blue' and donated her to a needy family from church. She seemed just as giddy as I was that first day when the couch had been delivered. "This is the nicest couch I have ever owned!" she told me. Once again, I felt a bit spoiled.... But when our new dark maroon couch showed up the next day I somehow managed to struggle through my guilt in the comfortable new springy cushions.
Want to participate in this couch writing experience? Link here and give it a go.
8 comments:
This is such a sweet story about a couch!!!
Steph
Thanks! And thank you for putting up the challenge. It was fun.
I remember your blue couch quite well. Good old days in Iowa!
There were at least a few of those blue and white (or green and white) couches in the ward back in Iowa. It was a popular style in the late nineties.
Good times, noodle salad...
I don't really know why I just said that.
I believe I sat on that couch to visit teach you back in the day at Bob's College Park Apartments. If it makes you feel better, I was jealous of the white-washed armoire AND your blue stripey couch. Our apartment came furnished and we owned NOTHING except a card table and folding chairs.
Those Stakers had everything didn't they?
What a cute idea! I just may try it too. Oh, the couch memories!
So dare I admit that I still own my very first couch-- which isn't even a full-length couch but a loveseat? I did inherit my aunt's nice floral couch, but my cats, angry about the move to Iowa, shredded it down to the frame. I left it on the curb and somebody picked it up on that annual May spring clean-up day routine that Iowa City does.
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