Memories Are Made of This: Archie Bunker Chair

Where we sit is important. When we buy tickets to a play, a concert or a sporting event, the big issue is "where are the seats?" We pay more for a premium seat that will lend itself to the best viewing area or that will give us more bang for our buck.
We arrive early at events where open seating is available so that we can grab the best seat available. Recently on the 4th of July we left our own festivities early to get down to the Bay so that we could grab a seat that would be conducive to viewing the fireworks at a spot with the best 'wow' factor.
Seating is invariably a key factor in our enjoyment of certain events.

At home, most people have a special chair they like to call "their" chair. My husband had such a chair. I say had because I finally convinced him that it had to be replaced since it was falling apart and really looked disgusting in our family room. We bought a nice new chair and ottoman, but "his" chair isn't quite gone yet. It is in the garage ready to go out on the curb. It has been there for several months now, and each Sunday night when the garbage gets put outside on the curb, that chair somehow gets overlooked.
I call this chair his 'Archie Bunker chair'. I think anyone who ever watched "All in the Family" knows about Archie Bunker's chair! It is that special chair that Archie loves. It doesn't matter who comes into the house....be it the minister of Edith's church or the newest neighbor...they are not welcomed or permitted to sit in Archie's chair. He doesn't even allow his own daughter or her husband to sit in his chair!
My husband isn't quite this bad, but he runs a close second.

The funny thing about our Archie Bunker chair is that we spent 2 years, literally, going to furniture stores looking for new chairs. I let Jim choose....sit in them, size them out, explore. He never found a chair he liked. It finally came down to a chair I found at Macy's. This chair and its ottoman cost more than we had allowed in our budget for a replacement chair, but frankly, I was about to be sick of the whole thing. Suddenly money didn't seem that important. Jim told me he didn't like any chairs and that I could choose. The deal was I would use the new chair and he would move back to our recliner. Back before my foot surgeries, that was the way the seating arrangements were at our house. It wasn't until after the switch that Jim got so attached to this Archie Bunker chair.
So, I bought the chair and ottoman from Macy's and put the Archie Bunker chair in the garage. I sat in that new chair for a total of 2 days. Fact of the matter, Jim decided it was pretty darn comfortable and it suddenly became "his" chair. (I secretly fear an Archie Bunker Chair 2 on the rise!) I don't know what I'm going to do when this chair wears out! Hopefully I have many years before I have to go through any of that again.
The fact that I found a hole in my trusty recliner yesterday might just mean shopping for new furniture for the rest of the family room. Shhh....I might just go this one alone!

Speaking of the Archie Bunker chair, I am led to remember other chairs on TV that were of significance. Remember the trusty ottoman that Dick Van Dyke always tripped over? I think most of us can shut our eyes and visualize that scene.
I know Jim and I watched "Cheers" religiously. Each character had a special bar stool on that show. Cliff and Norm particularly are 'visuals' when we think of this. I guess that isn't quite the same as the Archie Bunker chair or Dick Van Dyke's ottoman, but the fact that certain people and/or characters are synonomous with the seats they occupied sort of solidifies my point.

I have trouble sleeping some nights. Thank goodness I have discovered TVLand and Hallmark Channel. I turn the TV on really low volume when I go to bed so that I don't wake up Jim. I am not a huge TV person, so I can watch reruns of "King of Queens," "The Golden Girls," "Everybody Loves Raymond," or "Fraiser" and be quite content. On each of these shows, the characters tend to sit in particular chairs. The most scripted of these is in "Fraiser." Fraiser's Dad moved in with him and had to bring his prized chair with him. His Dad gave up his whole independence, except for this chair that is worn and doesn't match, and his dog. His chair signifies more than anything on this show. It is an endearing factor for Martin Crane. There are whole episodes given to this chair....moving it around, disguising it, repairing it, etc. In my mind, it is as close to an 'Archie Bunker Chair' as one can find!
It also signifies a lot when we think of our parents aging and moving and changing. Everyone needs something to cling to.....even if it is a weathered and worn old chair!

I know growing up on Ridgeview Drive, my Dad watched TV from the recliner in the family room. I honestly cannot picture him in another chair in that house.
After Daddy had his accident with the lawn mower where he cut off some toes, I can picture him sitting in this recliner with his hurt and mangled feet stretched out on the recliner. I realized at this time that my lifelong dream (until about age 10) of becoming a nurse was squelched. I could not look at my Dad's feet. It was so bad that I would holler downstairs before approaching to warn him he needed to cover his feet as I was coming through! I think that is one of the only regrets I have in life. I can't believe I couldn't have been stronger for my Daddy in his time of need. I guess the best part of this is that I realized that nursing wasn't for me if I couldn't even look at my Dad's bandaged wounds. It kind of stinks because I think I have a caring nature and I might really be a good nurse. But, I realized at age 10 that the sight of injury put me over the edge and that didn't make for a good nurse!

I never realized how attached Mom is to her recliner. When she lived in Shelby she sat in it all the time. I knew it was her comfortable spot, but I didn't realize just HOW comfortable! As I visited more and more and spent more and more time there, I realized that this was more politely Mom's Archie Bunker Chair! (The difference being, Mom WOULD offer to let other people sit in her recliner!)
When we were deciding what to bring and what not to bring to Florida when Mom moved, she almost left her trusty recliner behind. She was visualizing a lovely apartment, which she did quite well, but I told her that her second bedroom could and should be a little den. I thought she should put her recliner and her TV in there. It turns out it is the cutest room in her apartment and besides her bed, she spends the most time in this little den......in her recliner!

It is funny, too, to realize how we are at church. We always have our own spot or our own pew. At our church, it depends on which service we go to as to which spot we sit. We do, however, feel like we have an unspoken spot at each service!
We always laugh because Madeline's future in-laws always sit on the back row of the church at the contemporary service. If we want to sit with them, we sit on the back row. Funny. I am not a back row kind of person. Given extremes, I would choose the front row.
But, if we want to sit with these people that we know and love, we have to compromise and join them on the back row.
The bonus, I guess, is that we have discovered you can whisper to each other and not worry about disturbing anyone!

I view myself as flexible and one who doesn't sweat the small stuff. I don't claim any chair, but I do always sleep on a certain side of the bed and I do always sit in a particular seat at the breakfast room table, the dining room table, or the lanai table.
We each actually have our particular chairs in the living room on Christmas morning when we open our gifts. Madeline sees to it that we don't "stray" from our normal habitat!

I guess Archie Bunker had it right. There is comfort in having a "place" in your own home.

And memories are made of this.