Plastic on Couches.

I remember some of my grandma's friends having plastic covered furniture. My grandmother never did cover her furniture; she had the prettiest dining table and chairs.
 

Remember this?

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My Mum did this with one of our couches. I remember when I was little, going visiting and it was a very common habit. Also plastic runners down hallways, and plastic left on lamp shades.

These days, I can't even imagine doing such a thing! Back then, furniture was a major investment and you kept it for a long time. These days, furniture, at least with the younger folk, seems to be quite disposable. It doesn't cost anywhere near as much, so you might for example get a couch cleaned a time or two, but then you just get rid of it and get another one when it gets too shabby.

In 53 we had Hounds Tooth Orange and Black small check.
 
I can actually remember so far back I was not walking , even remember being dressed on the dining room table. I had a sandbox out in the front and they would sit me in the box and I would play with brand new plastic colored cups. I will never forget them because they were full of petroleum in the manufacturing and had an oily smell. Red Green Blue and Yellow. That and the many colored bubbles in my bath. That's going back pretty far.
 
Here is a black and white of the couch in the front room. The floors were hand waxed and polished once a week, you could shave in the reflection.

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It was a bit tired for sure ! My favorite thing about Christmas was the folding gum drop see thru plastic Tree, it sat on the top of the TV and I had explicit orders not to touch those gum drops until Christmas Morning. ;0)
I mentioned the tree in fun, Mat, because if my mom and dad couldn't find a perfect Christmas tree, oh boy, how upset they'd be.

The gum drops sound delightful!
 
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Love the TV! We had a round screen, with the antenna, too.
I watched the first episode of Gunsmoke on that TV and the TV was already old then. I'm thinking it was around 57 or 56 that very first episode came on late at night. Only two stations at that time and of course the 12 o clock sign off with the playing of the National Anthem.
 
OMG, I remember that thing too, but they put it out around Easter time! Wow.
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Ours was a bit older and it was in the shape of a coned Christmas Tree. The two plastic Reindeer also were with us for decades. The only item I have left is a Christmas Bell that you would tie on a door and it had a string to pull which them played a Christmas tune. I kept it because my Grandmother loved it.
 
Ours was a bit older and it was in the shape of a coned Christmas Tree. The two plastic Reindeer also were with us for decades. The only item I have left is a Christmas Bell that you would tie on a door and it had a string to pull which them played a Christmas tune. I kept it because my Grandmother loved it.
Did you have one of these? It was my favorite. The angels spun around by he heat of the candle and hit the bells.
iu
 
Did you have one of these? It was my favorite. The angels spun around by he heat of the candle and hit the bells.
iu
No, we did not have one of these, I have seen them before. You would find all these great things in the old Dime Stores. When I was young and would go to the movie house in the Heights I would always save a quarter so I could stop at the Five and Dime about a block from the movie house and I would not leave until I found a small item of junk I could buy with that quarter. I remember one time getting this cool Plastic Cowboy Hat and it was in a nice little white box wrapped in soft paper, all for a quarter heh
 
Speaking of keeping a house like a museum, there was a story of a distant relative who not only kept plastic on the furniture, but also had those movie theater stanchions and ropes blocking off the formal dining room.
Back in the early 60s a friend's parents had done that very thing with their living room, velvet ropes included. I looked at her cockeyed as we walked past it. She told me that the room was for adults only, no children allowed. It struck me as being totally bizarre.

No area of my family's house was off-limits, my parents' bedroom included.

I went to that girl's house only once. She seemed to prefer playing at my house. Wonder why...
 
We had the same neighbors!
We couldn't have asked for better neighbours.

Whenever I was in a pinch and needed a babysitter (not now but right now), R, was there for me, and A, used to bring dear husband a few bottles of his homemade vino every year, and seldom did a Christmas pass where we didn't get-together for a visit.
 
There was no plastic on my parent's furniture, but they did have "slip covers" on the arms and backs of furniture where hands and backs of heads would touch so as to keep those areas clean. They also had their furniture "re-upholstered" after many years, basically stripped down, stuffed with new padding, then covered with fresh fabric. Re-upholstering furniture is rare these days, and probably cost-prohibitive even if you can find someone to do it...
 


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