Sofas & Space

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Betty’s bad back has a beef with every chair and sofa in the house.* So I drove her and Pop over to Wickes and, after a lot of test-sitting and indecision, Pop ordered some new furniture: a sandy-colored reclining chair, a matching sofa, and a matching loveseat. You might say they’re more comfy-looking than they are stylish.

By the way, Pop’s bad ears have misled him to refer to Wickes as “Wicky’s.” Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve explained that the name is pronounced, “Wicks,” —as in the “wick” of a candle—it’ll always be “Wicky’s” to Pop. 

Before he made the purchase, I measured the room so everything would fit.†

Only I forgot to measure the doorways.

Turns out the new sofa wouldn’t fit through. So we changed the order to two loveseats and the reclining chair. 

Now Pop’s worried about the two OLD sofas that have to go. The Salvation Army is sending a truck the day before the new furniture arrives. Pop, though, he’s not convinced the old sofas will make it through the doorway. As I’ve reminded him more than once, the house wasn’t built AROUND his two old sofas. If you turn them onto their sides, they’ll make it out through the backdoor, easy-peasy.  

“I don’t know...” Pop kept saying, rubbing his bald head. 

Right there in front of him, I measured both old sofas—never mind they’re exactly the same size. After that, I measured the back doorway. I PROVED it to him that they’ll fit through, but he just stared with real concern at these old sofas, saying, “I don’t know...” 

For the record, these weren’t the very first sofas he’d bought for the room. He built the house in the 1950s; those two old sofas, they date back to the 1980s. 

But maybe he doesn’t really want to let ‘em go. 

04 June 2004

*[Not that it mattered, but Betty’s bad back probably had a beef with every chair and sofa ever made.]

†[Not the living room; nobody spent time in the living room. We’re talking about the many-windowed addition in the back of the house Pop called, “the TV room.” It’s where he took his meals, read his newspapers and magazines, napped, and, you guessed it, watched TV. It’s a hefty 40-inch Belushi CRT TV. I still own it and it still works. Back in 1996, it was state-of-the-art.]

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