[lit-ideas] Re: On being "Better off"
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 17:33:55 -0800
I must say I enjoyed Lawrence's piece.
Here, by way of oblique response, is today's adventure:
The way to convince me that something is worth money is to demonstrate that
it's well made and of good materials. I'm a sucker when it comes to honed
lumps of beautiful hardwood or the wool/cashmere blend. Case in point: my
favorite thrift store sent me an e mail saying that today everything would be
half price. In a busy life and with our financial position and in the large
scheme of things, there is no convincing argument to be made that the
difference between a jacket at six dollars and a jacket at three is worth time
that could be spent writing another chapter or planning a class. It was
therefore in the absence of good sense and rationale, and simply because the
sun was shining, that I set out to make or buy metaphorical hay. I confess I
did not go the straight way. I left my tennis racket where it could be
re-strung before Sunday's match, and then detoured slightly, aiming towards an
estate sale where there were two paintings by Henk Pender, an artist well known
in these parts. Fear not you who have care for the privy purse...I had no
intention of buying; I just wanted to see what his early work was like. Or so
I told myself.
At the sale, I met our girls' pediatrician. We had a neighborly chat. And, of
course, I bought books: Teddy Roosevelt on hunting, Victorian volumes of Byron,
Scott, Burns and Tennyson. The lagniappe I discovered when I got them home is
that the fellow used old photos for bookmarks. They're not particularly
interesting photos, but in my view, taken with the books' beauty, they are
publishing's equivalent of wool/cashmere blend.
Which is what I found at the Thrift: a jacket "Made in West Germany," therefore
not so new, reasonable fit and absolutely black. I also bought a collection of
old silk threads for a friend who loves to sew. Oh and a book on Richard II.
Who knew he was interesting?
So...honed lumps of wood? Back story (pun intended): I've been trying to solve
a mattress problem: our bed is twenty years old. Yesterday we came very close
to ordering one of these memory foam things from Costco. The online reviews
were good and that's the stopgap solution we currently have on top of our
antique: a sliver of foam. So why not a whole mattress? Well then we found a
website, themattressexpert.com, where people are "trained in the science of
sleep." It explained exactly why memory foam is not a good solution and, like
all good arguments, the writing re-inforced my prejudices. I think that a
mattress ought to be well-made, with heavy springs and careful stitching. It
should look as if it is serious about providing comfort. It should do the bed
equivalent of sitting up straight. The only one I'd seen which seemed to do
this had been in the very first shop we tried, so I volunteered to go back and
take another look. L. stayed home.
In the store, the mattress I liked still seemed pretty good, and here came the
sales person, knocking bits off prices as he went. I came away with a written
quote, and then went back to Mr. Mattress Man's website to see what others pay.
Ha! Several hundred dollars less than our shop's "bottom line"...the one that
caused the manager to writhe on the floor in agony because his heart has been
ripped out.
At home we read some more and concluded...we didn't have a clue what to do next.
In the thrift store I remembered a place across town where, when we were first
in Portland, we'd bought a "re-conditioned" mattress for guests to sleep on.
How does on re-condition a mattress? Strip the cloth off, see if the springs
are still in good shape, sew another cover and spongy bit, done. It wasn't the
most comfortable mattress in the world, but it was good enough. I wondered if
they had something a bit better now, so across the bridge I went to see what I
could see of beds and springs and sealing stitches.
They have developed a second and third line of business. They now take the
demonstration mattresses that people have, by lying down in stores, dirtied up
with their shoes. They clean said beds off, repair any rents in the
fabric...sell the result. And what, when I explained what I was looking for,
did the genial fellow show me? The very mattress I liked in the other store
at...one third of the best price on the internet. I kept asking questions,
trying to discover the catch. When was it made? Had it been damaged? Which
store had it come from? Straightforward answers to every question. "Why," I
asked, "doesn't everyone in the world come here for mattresses?" He said,
"That's what I keep asking myself. I was a customer before I worked here." I
asked him to put a hold on the thing until L. can see it.
And then I asked about beds. Over the years L. and I have thought about buying
a bed, but we could never find one that we liked better than simply putting the
box spring on a frame, leaning our backs against the wall and calling the whole
thing done. To be right for me, a bed would have to be made out of beautiful
wood, have a small and curved headboard that fits my back when I'm sitting up
to read, no footboard. "Well," said the fellow, "we've only got two in that
size. One's cherry...got some dings and scratches..."
As far as I was concerned it was perfect, the price extraordinary. We'll see
what L. says tomorrow.
It was with a light heart that I returned to work.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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