The Den - Summer 1974
And finally, the den becomes a teenager's bachelor pad and stereo room. Here I am, a skinny 18 year-old with huge hands, sitting proudly in front of my quadraphonic stereo system, housed in a cabinet we found at a garage sale. I, of course, painted it avocado and then antiqued it. (Like father, like son). Those sliding doors in front were painted beige - I had a can of spray paint this color and wanted to use it for something.
You can see my quadraphonic 8 track tape player and my collection of quadraphonic 8 track tapes to the right, all classical music recordings. It's not very visible, but those are headphones to the left of the receiver. They were quadraphonic, too! (2 speakers per ear!)
The picture on the wall was a 1971 Christmas present from Mom to Dad. The Spanish galleons were executed by dripping semi-liquid tar onto an emerald-colored canvas. The whole thing had an eerie, 3-D quality to it that I admired. It was especially striking when we first purchased it, because we hung it in the living room illuminated by a small picture light at night so that people outside could admire our taste. I think Mom bought it from a Mexican who sold his art on a vacant lot at the intersection of major San Fernando Valley boulevards. (They also used to sell gigantic stuffed animals.) I remember her telling me she'd paid $40 for it. ("It wasn't cheap, either!" - one of her tag lines used to defend her often quirky purchases - usually of something, well, cheap.)
The plaque next to the Spanish galleons was a Warner Brothers promotional item for the film "Camelot." We found it in a cabin up in the wooded hills of Wrightwood, CA. A friend of Mom's invited us to stay there for a weekend and we repaid him by stealing his plaque. I still own this, and it hangs on the wall of my office as a reminder of my humble beginnings. I tried to unload it in an estate sale in West Virginia, but nobody would buy it. (!)
Mom crocheted the comforter of 100% acrylic yarn. No natural fibers in our home!