.....the couch

Yogis,
There are certain iconic pieces of furniture. All I have to do is mention them and not only the physical objects themselves, but the people, conversations, thoughts and emotions around them will immediately come to mind.

Archie Bunker’s chair never sits empty in my mind. Archie’s scowl and Edith running in, with apron on of course. The barstools in Cheers where everybody knew your name. For the Trekkies, it has to be Captain Kirk’s command chair. The staircase in the Brady house where ‘Marsha, Marsha, Marsha’ always floated down with her perfect hair. The Friends’ orange Central Perk sofa with its fringe, of which a replica can be purchased on Amazon. Or the groovy round rotating bed on which Austin Power ‘shagged.’

In my family we have one such piece of furniture. It is an ivory colored couch.

My parents first spotted it in Scranton PA in 1971, but being in the process of moving to Atlanta, purchasing it would have been quite impractical. However, they had fallen in love and found one that could be brought into their new home.

Now this is not any couch. Referred to as a shelter sofa, it sits low to the ground with its three sides going straight up. Way up. The entire thing is covered in diamond patterned velour and it is deep….. So deep, that if you sit against the back your legs stick out like Lily Tomlin when she played Edith Ann on her rocking chair in Laugh In (yet another iconic piece of furniture.) It even includes two large heavy ottomans that open for storage. It is a statement piece.

Now if you are in my extended family or friend set and have ever been to my parent’s house, you know the couch. Not only do you know it, but you sat on it, had cocktails on it, took group pictures around it and squeezed closer to the person next to you because there is always room for one more.

If you were ever a child in its vicinity you invariably climbed or somersaulted across the back, or even rode the top ledge like a horse. If you are my son, you surely slept on it more than once when there was a shortage of beds. I even held a slumber party on it. Dragging the ottomans up against it and draping a blanket across the top made the absolute best fort.

Family parties centered themselves around that couch. Champagne on Christmas Eve. Pina Coladas in the summer. Even the cocktail portion of my wedding reception happened in its presence. And to this day…..it is in good shape and quite comfortable. In its fifty-two years as part of the family it has graced four different houses and given seat to five generations.

I went up to visit my parents this week and as the exits on the NJ Turnpike clicked by, I started getting excited to be going home. Now I never lived in this house so I thought about what makes it ‘home.’ The people, of course. Yet I also found myself seeing images of the couch. Imagining us being in that room together. It has made it home regardless of which structure it sat it.

That evening a friend of my parents from Atlanta was visiting who I haven’t seen since we moved. I suggested we watch old movies made on 8mm film five decades ago. The images we saw on the screen were how we knew and remembered each other.

She, my parents and I have changed, but you know what hasn’t? The couch that was in the background throughout.

The stories that couch could tell,
SARAH