Community Chat

[LilacTree]

I don’t remember any coffee tables, but there were quite a few ashtrays around because both of my parents smoked.

Our houses were very sparsely furnished because it was all second-hand furniture.  We moved thirteen times before I was in high school so I have a hard time picking any house as “home.”  

Where we lived was always sparkling clean though because my mother was always cleaning. My father was a hard worker, but at very low income jobs.  It was like that in the forties and fifties, at least it was for us.

[sfnative]

@house_cat 

We had to move out-of-state for quite a few years, so bought a house - my dream house, really.

To cut to the chase, my living room was all ivory.  The sofa was somewhere between a U and V shape.  This was perfect for a round coffee table.  It took me nearly a year to find one, because I wanted one with a glass top, which was very limiting.  I ended up finding the most interesting coffee table at Dillard's (had never been in a Dillard's before) and, frankly, had an issue with the origin of part of the coffee table.*

Though not crazy about black wrought iron, the foundation of the table was beautifully designed and created by a fine metal worker.  The top was so special:  imagine a ring, 5" in width, made out of petrified wood,* which had somehow been bleached.  On its surface, an artist had used watered down paint to create a faint garland of flowers with leaves.  Very tastefully and artfully done.  Then in the large void in the middle, a round of tempered glass was inset to complete the table.

I loved that table and still do.  When we had to sell the house, the real estate market in that city had turned upsidedown and it took us 3 years to sell the house (meanwhile, we had moved back to CA, but this time to SoCal).  Without even discussing the matter with me, my husband made a deal to sell our house with a potential buyer - with a hitch.  The hitch was that everything in the house stayed in the house.  Everything!

I won't go into the dynamics of his decision, except to say that to this day I continue to miss my special coffee table.

[LyndaGee]

A blue glass candy dish, a couple of copies of Prevention magazine, and a blue, yellow and green ceramic dish shaped like a sea shell, which was a souvenir from my parents' honeymoon.  Still there!

[mary0129]

Back in the 50's I recall Mom having magazines, an ashtray and a few coasters.Sometimes a hand crochet doily.

[shoekitty]

Some art ceramic dish with lid, a weeping gold leaf shaped dish, and a few art print books Cezanne, van gogh, monet and sisley.  There was a floral arrangement I think.  It was a 6 ft plus long low coffee table.  The couch was one of those 9 foot things. Late 50's. Early 60's.

[Caaareful Shopper]

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@aroc3435 wrote:

@sfnative   Thank you.  This is a wonderful "walk back along memory lane" topic for me.  The coffee table itself was mahogany with a greek key inlay of gold around the border and a leather inset rectangular center.  It was perfect for this Victorian seven room house.  It held a large cut glass ashtray with the smaller matching ones on the side tables.  

Also gracing that table was a lustreware pale pink covered candy dish with individually wrapped hard candy inside, and a neatly folded (but well read) daily newspaper--always--since my father was a journalist and would bring one home early each morning after "putting the paper to bed".  In the summer an arrangement of my dad's prized roses would be added to this table's landscape. 

For the Thanksgiving and Christmas season a cut glass bowl of nuts and the obligatory matching nutcracker and pics and a fancy box of chocolates--Barracini's or Loft's were added.

The TV Guide would be on the side table near my dad's club chair.  We had those fold up metal TV tables in a stand tucked away and it was a treat on Friday nights to eat while watching TV instead of having a formal dinner in our dining room.

It was the first house my parents owned and I loved it then and now.  The happiest seven and a half years of my life were spent there, from age 3 and 1/2 to age 11.  I still dream of that house and live in it again many nights.

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@aroc3435  This is beautiful!

[Mj12]

When I was a kid in the 70s, this is what we had on our coffee table.  One of the first "remote controls" with a long cord that connected to the tv; we switched channels by turning the dial and pressing the huge buttons.  We thought it was so advanced.  Cracks me up! 

[aroc3435]

@Caaareful Shopper   Thank you for the compliment.  I do enjoy writing; I know sometimes my comments go on too long for some people's taste. 

[aroc3435]

@Mj12   Gosh, had totally forgotten that.  I was already out of my mom and dad's home--mid seventies, finished college, and married--when my brother  wore them down to finally get a color television and Comcast cable.

My mom used to put the box on her lap so she could change it from her chair--the cord was long enough!

[Mj12]

HI @aroc3435 yes!  The cord was at least 30 ft long!