Behind the Douglas fir curtain

Old Couch Part 9

July 26th 2012.

Old Couch

By Stephen Jay Morris

Question: Is having sentimental feeling for a material object normal? Answer: I don't know. Many possessions I have, has some sentimental value. Some think may think of me as a hoarder. I do have a tendency to save a lot of useless junk. Yes, I do suffer from O.C.D, however, I like to collect objects and treat them like souvenirs. Like photo's that are memories frozen in time.

When Pamela and I lived in a 2-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, we didn't many possessions. This was in the early 80's, before we got married. The first items we bought were a washer and dryer. The second item we bought this couch. We bought it at the old Wilshire May Company department store. We put it on our May Company credit card. It was one of the first credit cards we ever got.

The couch had a weird color called: Mauve. The armrest had an art Deco look. The fabric was some kind of velvet. The cushions were fluffy and loose. It was very comfortable. I think the manufacture was Harvey Norman. I'm not sure.

I would lay on that couch in the living room, which faced west. Out the French windows and watch the sunset in the Santa Monica Mountains. Our stereo and radio was next to the couch. I would sit on that couch late at night or all day listening to the local college radio station waiting for them to play cuts from my album. When we had guests come over to the apartment, they sat on that couch. I auditioned a fiddle player while she sat on that couch playing her fiddle.

Then in the 90's we moved to the desert town of Palmdale California. We put the couch in the family room in front of the television set. It was the first time we had cable T.V and I spent hours on that couch watching T.V. I watched Michael Jordan slam-dunk and I watched the L.A Clippers lose one game after another. I watched the L.A riots sitting that couch and I witness the first Iraqi war.

We had a female cat named: Jell-O. She started to knead on that couch which made these big tears in the fabric.

After 6 years we moved to San Pedro Harbor California. We put the couch in the extra room. It sat there for 16 years. I use to record my songs on that couch. Sometimes I took naps on it.

In 2010, we moved to Oregon in 2010. By that time the couch looked really beat up and dirty. We put it in the den and I only sat on it to listen to the constant falling rain.

Now we had to move again because we couldn't keep up with the mortgage payments. That was only a year and half. We had to get rid of the old couch because our next location didn't have room for it. I got a handy man to load it on Ford Ranger pick up truck in the bed. I drove it to the goodwill store in the City of Warrenton, which was 27 miles south. When I got there, some worker help me take it off the truck. Now here comes his supervisor and tells me: Sorry, we can't take the couch, it is in bad condition. I was pissed. I had to put it back on the truck and retie it.

My only choice was to take it to the county dump. This was another ten miles away. So I crossed the mighty Columbia River to the town of Astoria.

I found the dump in the back woods on dirt road. A nice lady in a shed directed me to the area to dispose the old beat up couch. I want into this giant barn. Some worker was driver this rusty old skip loader inside the barn. I back up my truck to a pile of garbage. I untied it and shoved it off the truck on to the pile of trash. I felt this sense of sadness. It seemed like yesterday I saw it in the showroom of May Company. After I dump it, I slowly drove off and I saw the skip loader pick it up and throw it this giant mental bin. Sometimes I think material thing have souls to them. I drove home after paying the 15-dollar fee. I wish I wouldn't get attached to material things. The couch served me well for those years. Goodbye couch.

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