Back in the day it took a lot of green to own a colour TV.
Sometimes change is a good thing.
How many of you still have furniture in your home that’s been handed down from your parents and grandparents that is, let’s just say, ugly — but you’re too sentimentally attached to it to let it go?
Or if you’re lucky they are still alive and you don’t want to hurt their feelings by chucking that old hide-a-bed, sofa, or bedroom suite.
I think we’ve all been there. I have a flowery hide-a-bed that’s in the "oh man" zone. But it’s just neutral enough that, yeah, I’m keeping it. For now. I'm thinking it will make a comfy caboose couch, if it’ll fit through the door.
That 70’s flowers-on-steroids pattern was everywhere for a while, clashed with everything but nobody cared because this stuff was like a furniture virus. Everywhere you turned, there it was, with orange in it somewhere.
And for some reason people actually liked it!
Unfortunately, it wore really well too, which explains why there’s still so much of it in use. Even now, if a basement still has wood panelling on the walls, for sure it has a 70’s couch in it.
It was often combined with some crazy busy looking bar-room type carpet that really ramped up the clash factor, but again, nobody cared. People drank more back then.
I’m showing you this today because earlier this week I was browsing through the shelves of my library (every home should have one) ... and I came across a minty 1975 Eaton’s sale pamphlet, featuring some of the most ghastly furniture this world has ever produced. Built well, but the upholstery choices, wow, just wow. Stare at it too long and it’s seizure time.
However, style aside for a moment, what really shocked me was the price of this stuff! That was back before I had enough money to buy new furniture — so just about everything was made out of fruit packing crates and those sturdy soft drink crates.
Take for example a garish hide-a-bed. The price, and we’re talking sale price here, was $479.99.
That was a lot of money back then. My Dad retired around then making something like $500 a month. Maybe that’s why they never had one of these sofas.
No wonder that generation kept them around so long.
One of the most popular purchases back in the disco era was a colour television, the bigger the screen, the better. Well that hasn’t changed. It was important to watch The Waltons or The Lawrence Welk Show in colour. But again, the price of these magnificent home "theatres" was shocking! Eaton’s Viking 26-inch Mediterranean style colour TV was $729.88, again, a lot of money when you consider you could buy a modest home for $25,000.
My first home purchase, in 1980, was $30,000.
Need a new dining room suite perhaps? How about a House of Braemore Colonial Pine Suite, "friendly and warm", nine pieces, for just $1,699.99, not $1,700. Nope, because rationalizing the price being in the $1,600 range instead of $1,700 made it so much more affordable.
That bit of price magic will never go out of style.
I recently helped friends empty a house packed with 70’s style furniture (owners had gone into a personal care home), and there was a Colonial suite in the main bedroom, excellent condition, and they literally couldn’t give it away. Don’t know what became of that.
That period is also when so many appliances came out in harvest gold or that depressing hospital green. Both went so well with orange. And then there’s the shag rug thing. They actually included a custom rake when you bought the shag.
Humans are such an interesting study. I’m suddenly experiencing a flashback to some of the wallpaper from those days, including that ornate fake velvet stuff that collected more dust and pet hair than your furnace filter. You actually had to vacuum the walls.
But enough reminiscing for today. Time to wash my mask and avoid my family and friends. Strange times kids. Strange times. Stay Safe!
Comments and feedback welcome.
lmustard1948@gmail.com
