Monday, February 9, 2009

The Color Free

In college, we had some rock'n furniture.

We had the "red chairs". And when I say red, I mean really red. Bright red. Made of valour.

We had a coffee table that had been modified for the bachelor pad...it had a paper towel installed under it, a straw dispenser on it and was well broken in.

We even had one room that had solid oak bunk beds. They were fantastic for college guys. Thank goodness it was not my room!

But my favorite piece of furniture was our couch. Pops had given it to me. It sat a good 6 inches off the ground because of the long legs. It was deep with a very tall back. Most people could not touch the ground when they sat on it. It was fluffy and soft, but with good support. It was made with the itchiest wool, but it was so frigg'n comfortable. Its color, well, was hard to describe. It was sorta orange, pea-soup green and poop brown with an occasional streak of red. We always described the color as "Free".

As in "hey Bogart, what color is that couch?"

"It is free."

We thought it was appropriate. It was a great couch.

It represented most of our things in college. We did not care so much about looks, we cared more about functionality. The red chairs were brutally red, but they were crazy comfortable. The couch was itchy and a weird color, but it was great to sit in when you were dressed. It also acted as a good way to not worry about walking in on any roommate making out with a girl. It was just to itchy to do anything too risque.

It was all part of the college experience. Free furniture. Cheap food. Fun times.

-----

Yesterday Claire and I continued that tradition, passing along a split-pea green, leather sofa bed (Color = Free), a sky blue chair that looked a lot like this...only sky blue (Color = Free)...an unfinished dinner table, a papazon chair and a Foosball table to a young man and his girlfriend.

It is nice to get some of the things out of Claire's place as well as out of mine, but it made me smile to think that I was passing along a tradition of free things that looked, well, Free.

-----

What do you remember being passed along to you in college?

14 comments:

Patience said...

Mono. That was passed along to me in college.

Kevin Pellatiro said...

The ol turquoise futon is hard to forget. How about cinder blocks holding up the bed? Like to think that idea was J's fault (grin).

WILLIAM said...

I passed along Mono to Patience.

Schell Family said...

You guys were SO proud of yourselves for the paper towel dispenser :)!

And - I totally remember the couch and the chairs...it was a true college guys apartment...ah...good times :)!

for a different kind of girl said...

My senior year, I lived with six other people in a house that shouldn't even have been considered livable, and the living room was decorated with furniture each of our parents were happy to see leave their own homes. It was a hideous house, a hideous assortment, but it was ours, and that was a great year of school!

Anonymous said...

My roommate's stepdad gave us his furniture from when he was a 54 year old bachelor. We had 2 sofas. One that was very uncomfortable and the one that smelled odd. Our table was the glass-top hexagon. We also had the spool. Nothing like a coffee table spool.

Anonymous said...

15 lbs...passed on by IHOP at midnight.

MaBunny said...

Hmm, I went to a trade school, so only experienced the college thing for a few months , but after Chris and I got married, we realy couldn't afford a living room set, and it seems everytime our couch starts getting run down, someone in our family is getting rid of theirs and getting a new one, lol. color does equal free:)

April said...

When Uberman and I got married, his mom bought us a couch and love seat for our new condo since we had no money and no furniture.

When the guy came to deliver them he said "Where do you want these?" I took one look at them and said "Back on the truck."

They were green and red plaid. They looked like an old man's Christmas golf pants. Ten years later, I gave them to my aunt and uncle for their cabin up north. My aunt loved them and thought they would look so cozy in her cute little cabin.

A year later, her cute little cabin was featured in one of those home design magazines. And my ugly couches were called "vintage."

Rachel said...

I didn't move off to college or anything, but my husband had this HIDEOUS reddish/bluish/plaidish chair that was huge with the wood around the bottom of the rocker and big wooden side rests. It was really comfortable but was the biggest eyesore I had ever seen. After he had to go to Omaha for three months and all of his stuff sat out in his parents humid garage ... the chair bubbled up on the wood part and I was SO ready to get rid of it. We kept it another year though and just got rid of it as we moved into our new apartment ... I kind of miss it now!

Patience said...

and, William, it was soooo worth it!

JP said...

Foam chair that turned into a bed. It was a lovely blue tweed color.

Brock, Esther, Reagan and Samuel said...

I remember all that funiture...especially that puke colored burlap couch!
we had a HUGE white leather sectional that had one of the arms completely ripped off and showing wood from a dog! We also used wooden crates with a piece of glass (it might have been a window) on top as a coffee table and a bunch of those same crates stacked together in a pyramid to create an entertainment unit for our TV from the 80's that weighed about 95lbs!
I LOVE HAND-ME-DOWNS!

Brock, Esther, Reagan and Samuel said...

OH! I forgot the best piece! We had an opaque florecent blue BLOW-UP chair!!