Home > Habitude > Archives > 2008 > June > 27 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USMan’s best friend - his recliner?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a former life in a former city, I shared a home with a former boyfriend and his hideous recliner. I’m sure it was a “beautiful” green leather chair when his parents bought it from Ethan Allen in the 1980s, but by the time it came into my life (2004), it was broken in spots, torn in others, and was way past its prime. (For example, when one pulled the lever to recline the chair, the footrest would break.)
Truth be told, my former flame has an eye for style, but he refused to part with this leather chair. Even when we designed and purchased new pieces for our home, this chair remained, though banished to the basement. Take away that chair and I was taking away his college days, his independence, his, I don’t know, laundry folding station? (And for the record, I wasn’t stripping away all relics of his bachelor youth. I even purchased for him an Xbox 360 as proof.)
The chair remained, even when I didn’t. This year I learned that he finally parted with it when a sectional became a more attractive TV viewing alternative. I understand now that he had to come to the departure on his own terms, something I can’t say is true for our breakup.
Have you had experience with furniture that means more than its function? Is there a piece in your home your partner won’t part with, despite its ugliness? (Sounds like a tip for a successful marriage!)
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: "Roominations"
Comments
By Grandfather
June 27, 2008 2:37 PM | Link to this
Has it come to the point in our society that we are so casual about co-habitating that we just throw out the fact we are ‘living with’ my boyfriend. What a shame
By Q
June 27, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this
Good grief — a well written and thought out blog post that manages to use furniture as metaphor for life and relationships, and the best comment you can make is the equivalent of “kids these days”?
I don’t honestly know where to even start with this one … Maybe I’ll just shake my cane at you and tell you to get off my g******* lawn.
By Happy Fellow
June 27, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this
A good recliner always reclines whenever we guys want it to. The same cannot be said about an “its all about me girlfriend.”
Your former flame made a wise choice to keep his recliner and let you slide.
By Katie Leslie
June 27, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this
Happy Fellow - ouch! All because I didn’t like the recliner? Surely I must win points for the Xbox… surely! =)
By Jeezus people...
June 27, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this
Happy Fellow your post was beautifully written, and I’m a cynical ba$tard about a lot of things, but jeez people come on can we give this chick a break?
By Kent Mitchell
June 27, 2008 7:39 PM | Link to this
My chiropractor says that recliners are CHIROPRACTORS’ best friends. They cause all sorts of lower back problems. Sit up straight, now ya’ll.
By Leslie's Lament
June 28, 2008 8:27 AM | Link to this
I spent $1K on a deep, plush leather rocking chair that also reclined from Rooms to Go. It broke within the first couple of years so I mickey-moused a fix that involved a pair of pliars permantly attached to the wire thingie that let the chair recline. So the chair always had pliars sticking from it, but it was the only way. My wife nagged about it, and soon we were in a turf war, where I would tiptoe from the den to the kitchen for a beer during a commercial, so as not to lets her know me where-abouts, but she was always there, holding a mop or a broom or a lawn mower in ambush, “Where do you think you’re going?” (to the kitchen, to get a beer, there’s a Hannah Montanna marathon) “WRONG!”
So I swept, I mowed, I dusted I scrubbed, always dreaming of the day I’d be set free by some princess who could see the real me locked inside……then one day I passed by a strip mall that contained a wig store with these amazing long blonde haired wigs……I live in paradise now, on an easily imagined beach with a surfer girl, when the lights are low, I have watched you on the shore, standing by the ocean’s roar, do you love me do you surfer girl?
marriage saved, happy again.
Life rocks, and so does my old leather chair.
By Alpha Dog
June 28, 2008 11:10 AM | Link to this
Recliner Memories… One of my most cherished photographs is that of me holding my infant daughter 17 years ago as we fell asleep watching the Braves during their “worst to first” 1991 season. The Braves were in the NL West Division then and had a lot of late night games from the west coast toward the end of the season. I would hold and rock my little girl to sleep watching thoses games. Although her mother claimed I was spoiling her she grew up to be quite an athlete and one of the lights of my life. My three children use to climb all over me on that chair and it was the site of many story time readings, game playing and cartoon watching experiences.
May need to buy a recliner no doubt came from my early childhood when I sat on the floor next to my granddad’s chair. He would come home from work, lean back in his chair, light his pipe and he and I would read the newspaper until dinner time. He would hand me each section as he finished it. I also attribute my life-long love of newspapers to this experience.
So you see, the recliner can be the center of many family memories. And that doesn’t even count the memory of what me and my girlfriend did on the old recliner last week!
By Lou
June 28, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this
Hey JustCharles, Does your recliner have an older sister for me?
By Melissa
June 30, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this
My husband and I have a recliner - an old blue Lazyboy that used to be my father’s. My mom re-decorated all of the common areas of their house several years after he died and the green carpet, striped furniture and blue recliner had to go. My daddy loved that chair so I couldn’t see it going elsewhere. My husband falls asleep in it regularly, one of our cats likes to use it for her bed, and one of our Weimaraners likes to nap in it occasionally. We recently ordered new furniture so the blue Lazyboy will be moved to the office and the old gold Barcalounger (sp?) will go to charity - not that anyone will be racing to snap it up!