An Ode to Armchairs

Furniture is a commodity that doesn't go unappreciated in rural Maine. There are few luxuries in which middle class Mainers will indulge. Beer and recliners are two of them. An especially important living room furnishing is the overstuffed armchair. This is a part of the household that is valued perhaps even more than the toilet; it's a necessity. It isn't uncommon for folks to fall asleep in their armchair while watching the Sox game late at night, so it has to be comfortable. When pops is out working during the day, the dog is quick to take the opportunity to snatch up the comfort of his cushy seat.

As long as I've been alive and visiting my grandparents, I've known to sit on the couch and not in either Grandma's or Grandpa's armchairs. The two armchairs sit across the room from each other and my grandparents would sit in them like royal thrones overseeing the rest of the house and with a good view of the TV. In later years, when my grandparents became wealthier from being in the tourism business, Grandpa upgraded to a leather recliner. He rarely budged from it, so it must have been comfy. My grandmother actually took her last breath in that recliner last November. I know that she passed in comfort.

. . .

When an old couch or chair has been peed on by the cat one too many times or pops has ground cheese doodles into the upholstry to the point where the seat is orange, the trusty old armchair isn't taken to the dump. Someone else might snatch it up there! No, instead it is simply relocated to the backyard. There was an older fellow on Route 32 who used to spend his days planted in his recliner in the front yard, beer in hand, watching the trucks speed by, and waving to his neighbors and friends. I can think of worse ways to spend my time.

In Cap's case, his old armchair was moved into the workshop. In the afternoon, the sun shines in through the garage door and that armchair is a very pleasing place to sit and meditate on life. When Cap or I need a break from trap building or what-have-you, we "take a kink" in the worn recliner. It's pretty hard to get out of it once you're in. I think it's a brilliant addition to the power tools and trap materials. Every workshop should have one.

We even have an armchair altar here on the Peninsula! If you

are boating through The Gut in South Bristol you will encounter an unusual marker for the ledge just south of Witch Island. There is a teddy bear reclining sleepily in an armchair atop a pole on the ledge. I still don't know the story behind this local landmark, but I know it was placed there by a lobsterman as a joke of some kind. Or maybe he just figured he was done with it and didn't have a backyard to move it into. . . why not just stick it on the ledge? Ya never know around here.

(Photo by Mark Carl, 8/1/08, http://makarl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/kayak-trip-to-south-bristol-maine/)