The Den - December 1970
Not being house-poor as we were when we first moved in, we could finally afford some carpeting on the floor to cover those green and white linoleum squares. The obvious color choice for carpet in 1970 was gold. Even better, it went with avocado.
Mom relaxes in one of our recently-purchased Stratoloungers, the vinyl one with the vibrator and the heat pad features. Since she was always mindful of dirt and grease, the plastic protectors were left on the fabric-covered one (despite the Scotchgard fabric protection). The head protector features promotional material. The fabric is, of course, avocado.
There's a the colonial lamp on the phony marble-topped Mediterranean table, in front of the hunting mural. We bought this piece of art from a a local home improvement store down the street, Standard Brands (our frequent accomplice in our dubious home upgrades). Notice also that the plastic bag has been left on the frilly lamp shade and that the plastic plants extend past the end of the planter, apparently growing abundantly with frequent watering and care.
That red thing on the left is the edge of our red sofa, which was broken in a horrible mishap, described later. Also seen on the left is part of a New Hampshireish painting Mom bought. (I made a digital representation of it from another photo.) It was of a bearded old man coming out of a cabin, smoking a pipe and watching some children sled by on the snow. According to Mom, she had this painted especially for her from childhood memories. However, this always sounded suspicious to me. Years later, in 1979, when her sister Doris came out to Burbank for a rare visit, I asked about this. Aunt Doris then demanded to know when their father had ever worn a beard or when they had lived in a cabin. (It had to have been a pretty big cabin, as there were nine children.) This led to a big argument - they were both ethnic French Canadians and could argue passionately - and Doris later pulled me aside and told me she thought Mom had bought the painting already painted, not to order. I had to agree with her.
That crookedly-hung rifle was a World War I Charleville we bought at a flea market for $40. I later sold it for $100 to a World War I reenactor.