17 September 2009

ode to the long man couch

we used to have a plaid couch. a great big scratchy plaid long couch. we inherited it and were grateful for it as newlyweds. and many a friend slept over on that couch. five grown men could sit on it at once. seriously. which is why we named it the long man. it was red and brown and orange. i remember this because i once went to pier one hoping to find coordinating throw pillows to doll it up. mmm, right. like the uncle who tells dumb jokes, the long man overstayed his welcome.

it was heavy and awkward and only comfortable when we'd watch late night movies and i'd fall asleep in the glowing light of the tv. i love falling asleep during movies, there is something very comforting, childlike and sweet about it. so when the day came to up and leave our life as we knew it and run off to law school in california (for a year), and find a new nest, we left a lot of things behind. mostly i was sad. i love my dishes. i love my collections of stuff that i sentimentally hold on to. all my boxes of stuff that are in various basements across the state. but the long man was out. so out. i was not so sad to say goodbye. sure, it was a happy memory knowing daniel, age three jumped upon the springs with his brothers and colored on the interior padding underneath the cushions. yes, it was cute to think of the bridge this couch created, holding generations together. a happiness that only brown and orange plaid could provide. but we said buh bye and gave it away.

i picture it now in a loving rec room somewhere with a playstation 3 parallel to it and more jumping children armed with crayola. if i'd only known to charge $4,000 for it.



do you love the retro look? are you dreaming of the scratchy plaid couch of your youth? lucky you. an eerily similar sofa is now available at our beloved anthropologie. and you know me, i love to say, i had it first.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

three-thousand, that thing is four-thousand dollars!!! four-thousand. I cannot even comprehend spending half as much on a couch that is ACTUALLY cute. Unreal.

Mrs. Biscuit said...

wait...you live in California? How have I missed that all this time?

I know I've said it before but I'll say it again....you are one of my favorite bloggers....I get so excited when you have a new post up. I'm always wishing you lived down the street from me so I could force you to be my friend!

Now that I know you live in California too......

marta said...

am sorry to have completely confused my dear readers. we once upon a time moved to california, but then moved back to utah whereupon we moved to idaho. which is where we now reside.

completely confusing, i know. but i dream of living near the beach again. it was literally utterly dreamy.

brooke said...

This post is killing me. I, too, inherited a brown and orange plaid couch when I got married. It once belonged to my grandparents and apparently at one time (and I cannot in my wildest imagination believe this) it was in style and they paid good money for it.

I loved it because we could eat on it and the husband could lounge on it sans clothes and I didn't care. I even entered it in an ugliest couch contest.

When we moved out of Provo, we left the couch behind. It was a bittersweet day (but mostly sweet!) I cannot, will not believe that Anthropology wants 4000 dollars for that bad boy. Seriously, there's a sucker born every minute.

Travelin'Oma said...

I was one of those who did pay good money for a plaid couch—gold, black and brown. It went perfectly with the brown/black/tan shag carpet and black wrought iron hanging lamp. And I had a mullet. Far out!

DAN said...

Okay. Two words: the long man couch was freaking amazing. It was stylish and comfortable. (Obviously Marta and I have a difference of opinion about its merits.) And it truly could sit five adult men comfortably. In fact, Marta and I could lay down with our heads at either end and our feet would barely touch. (That might be a slight exaggeration.) Anyway, the day I took the long man couch to D.I. was one of the saddest days of my life. Hopefully it went to a good home and a family who appreciate brown/orange/red dacron plaid.

Unknown said...

I love couches like that. We had a massive one when I was really little - very early 70's. Yours sounds like similar proportions to the one we had. It was massive and itchy, you could comfortably fit five grown men on it too. Ours was a real, deep dark brown, like a really good quality dark chocolate. I'm thinking Green and Black's 85% cocoa solids here.

Ahem. Making myself hungry here.

But we got rid of it when we moved. Perhaps I'm sappy, perhaps I'm too fond of things retro. But I really miss that coach and it's 38 odd years later. Sigh. What can I say? It was a couch of substance. I've never really found one I liked as much as that.

Rightio. I'm shutting up now, before people think I'm strange, or very maudlin...

jularun7 said...

aw man, i had a long man plaid couch during our early-wed years, too! only it was patrioticly blue, red, and white. scratchy and wonderful. it's back in our in-laws basement now and i smile everytime i see it.

we do love the retro look. i have a long grey button tufted 60s looking sofa now and i'm crazy about it. though i'm not sure i'd pay 4k for the patriotic scratchy plaid couch.

happy friday, marta. have a good one!

Tiffany said...

Sooo funny! It's the circle of life, or at least the circle of hand-me-down couches. You're such a trend setter!

Michelle @ Twig said...

I think the sofa you are talking about is in my house right now! Passed down from parent-in-laws for our first couch as newlyweds!

talesofahummingbird said...

funny how it all comes back around again. i doubt my pink-and-light-green-plaid-hand-me-down-couch will ever grace the pages of anthropologie. thank heaves for slip covers. :)

Christina said...

Laughing out loud...would you believe that we have an ancient, oversized orange and brown scratchy plaid couch from my husband's childhood sitting in our basement as I type? It was a helpful hand-me-down to a pair of newly-weds in our case too.

Btw, I know it's polite to introduce one's self when fist commenting on a blog, so, Hello! I'm Christina. I came over from Summer's blog.

Ashley said...

Holy COW!!! $4,000... are you kidding me? I love Anthropologie, but that couch is just way too wonky.

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