blast from past

 I find the older I get, the more I think about the decor and fashions and all that of the 1970s when I grew up. I ran across an article today (on "Pocket," which I guess is an aggregator site) about the iconic "Granny couch"

We didn't have one, neither did either of my grandmothers. (My maternal grandmother had furniture mostly from the 40s and 50s; my paternal grandmother's furniture was probably a BIT newer but was not trendy the way those print sofas would have been).

Actually, I suspect, in the town where I grew up, that "western print" sofa would have been seen as a bit infra dig; people there were in to "tasteful" things though I suspect what they considered "tasteful" might seem dated now.

My parents did do an Americana style; it was closer to Colonial Revival (also featured in that piece) - heavy wood pieces (a number of them bought from those "finish it yourself" places, and my parents then painted them - they had several pieces in that odd paint style where you paint it a color - theirs was a light gray-green - and then put a wash of stain (?) over it, so it looks "distressed." I can't quite describe it but I can PICTURE how those things looked; I think the dresser that was used as a storage place for table linens still resides in my mom's basement; the desk and smaller table my brother took to furnish his first place. There was also a toychest that was painted black with a gold Colonial-style eagle decal; many years later I took it, repainted it white and tried to freehand pstel distelfinks on it (so: similar style, just different color palette). I use it as overflow storage in my bedroom. 

We did have "print" sofas, but they were a light colored Jacquard style tapestry with a pattern of branches and birds. They still exist; my mother still has them in her living room. They have to be close to 50 years old; I think I remember being a small kid when my parents bought them. The upholstery held up very well, through two kids and a succession of cats and a move. They've sagged a bit and my mom had to plump the cushions back up with quilt batting, but they're still perfectly serviceable.  

The 1977 Sears ad they feature - the ones with the plaid sofa and "brick style" flooring - that's also a familiar furniture style to me. Some of my friends' families had plaid sofas back then. 

That article also mentions the "Spanish or Mediterranian style" furnishing - very heavy carved or faux-carved sideboards and the like. I remember seeing those at furniture stores; I don't know if I knew anyone who actually had it. I suspect it went with the lady-in-the-rain lamps I've written about before - again, there were some things that were seen as "tacky" in my striving-to-be-upscale community, things that people actually derided as "Parma" (Parma, then, was famous for being a place where a lot of immigrants from central Europe, Italy and Greece and related regions had migrated; and recent immigrants were seen as 'tacky' by the mostly-WASP residents of my town. I suspect a lot of those immigrants were actually people who had fled places like Poland and Hungary during Communist takeovers in the 50s and they were just hardworking, ordinary folk, no one deserving being made fun of, but there's that snobbishness). Also the "plastic couch covers" and "plastic carpet runners" (which my parents actually had when they got new carpet, and I disliked them - both because they smelled plasticy and if a corner got turned over and you stepped on the wrong side, the little grippers on the underside hurt your foot, but also, yes, for snobbish reasons - I was already unpopular, I felt, why did I need MORE things for the other kids to ostracize me about, and yes, them knowing we had those runners in our house might do it). That snobbery may also be why I never saw one of the "western print" couches in the wild, despite their apparent ubiquity - the town I lived in was trying hard to be a New England clone (it was, after all, in the "Western Reserve of Connecticut") and so the style was more "New England Colonial Revival" even down to maybe-more-unomfortable seating (I knew people who had those high-backed "settles," or what LOOKED LIKE a couch but was just a big hard straight-backed chair long enough for two or three people to sit side by side).

But yes, I remember those things. And I think the point the author makes - that tastes were perhaps a bit more monolithic then, when there were maybe four or five tv channels instead of a multiplicity of cable/streaming options (and people who loudly proclaim that they don't do anything as pedestrian as watch tv, though those have always existed). And maybe people changed furniture less often? Or at least, in my family, we did - my dad's policy was to buy the best quality you could afford, nothing trendy, and use it until it wore out. (I tend to be the same way - the sofa I have is the one I bought almost 25 years ago, shortly before moving here). 

And a pull quote from the article: “I will go to my grave saying most people—modern people—do want unnecessary decoration. We are decorative beings.” Yes, I think this is also true. Even in what we think of more as "midcentury modern" - the Mad Men style Danish Modern furniture (and my parents had a few pieces of that, left from their married student days) - is in its own way decorative in a certain aesthetic. (Though I prefer things that are a bit more comfortable and perhaps even a bit fussier.)

But seeing those things: yes, I remember that time. And also: I can watch a tv show allegedly set in the 1970s, vs. one like the Columbo re-runs that one of the "high number" channels on my cable set up shows, and tell which one is echt and which one is a set-designer's reimagining of what the 1970s looked like....

(In fact, I saw one of the very last Columbos ever made the other night, from 1990 or so, and it just looked so WRONG - the clothes were "too modern," the hairstyles weren't the hairstyles people had - and then I looked and saw the date and "yes, of course" - I was in college already by that time.

And I also admit: I like and watch the old "Murder,, She Wrote" re runs when I find them because, especially in the early, Cabot-Cove-centered episodes, there's something comforting to me about the early-80s decor and clothing and hair - I remember that, it's from a time when life seemed easier than it does now)