I was
thinking about mattresses. We recently got a new one and it made me wonder --
how many brand-new mattresses in my life? The problem with that question is;
one must think back and remember, when did they first become aware of
mattresses? Then it might be possible to deduce; when one first became aware of
‘mattress newness’.
About the
first recollection I seem to be able to dredge up is of the mattress tag -- you
know, the one that suggests ‘penalties under the law’ if removed or destroyed?
I don't even know if that tag still comes on mattresses -- it doesn't seem to
be on the new one. But I remember wondering about the how's and why's of that
tag at a very early age. Other than that, mattresses were just something that
came with beds.
I do
remember the first time I noticed anything really different about one mattress
compared with another -- the feather mattress in the guest room of my aunt's
farm house, where I sometimes spent summers as a youth. Soft like nothing I
ever felt, it virtually swallowed up my skinny young body, and with the down
comforter I was in the perfect cocoon of warmth and safety. I would lie there in
the total dark and listen to the barking of coyotes and the calling of Loons. I
would think of the deer we had seen after supper coming down from the wood line
to the fields, and know that in the morning there would be fox tracks around
the chicken house.
The idea
that there could be good or bad mattresses -- mattresses too soft or too hard,
mattresses worn out -- stained and torn, didn't occur to me for many years. My
parents provided me with a bed and I slept on it. Not until I was old enough to
'sleep over' did the wide range of various mattresses become known to me. Sleeping
over, that is -- sleeping on other people’s beds -- I began to learn more about
mattresses. I learned that you could place a sheet of plywood between a
worn-out mattress and its box springs to minimize that 'slumping to the middle'
thing. I learned that mattresses could be turned over and reversed. I learned
that sleeping on just the box springs was marginally better than sleeping on
the floor. To this day I am saddened by the sight of a worn out and dirty
mattress abandoned by the roadside.
Finally,
at age 21, I was to buy my first new mattress. Recently married, my wife and I
moved into an unfurnished apartment. Neither of us brought with us a bed, or
much of anything else in the way of furniture. So we purchased a bargain priced
arrangement: three rooms of furniture for $199. Included, were sofa and chair,
matching end tables and lamps, and a bedroom suite; box springs, mattress, two
bedside tables and two dressers. Even at that time, 1966, a decent mattress set
was $200 by itself. So, it would be hard to imagine sleeping on a cheaper mattress.
From day one we both rolled to the center. Even the plywood trick didn't work.
Nonetheless,
it would be many years until I was to purchase another new mattress. Fifteen,
in fact. We moved the bargain furniture with us from California to Michigan and
the bed stayed in service for nearly 10 years, as did the marriage. A period of
rentals and borrowed beds followed.
When my
second wife became pregnant with our third child we finally pitched the
hand-me-down mattress we had been given by her parents and bought an extra firm
mattress. But again, at the bargain
basement discount store -- for a few hundred dollars. It did stay more or less
firm throughout the pregnancy, but not much longer. Even so, we moved it to
Illinois where it, too, remained in service as long as the marriage.
Another
period of rentals and temporary arrangements on used mattresses followed. And
then, so did another marriage -- and another brand-new mattress -- the first
purchased at an actual mattress store. This one cost over $500 about fifteen
years ago. Perhaps it would have been considered midrange at the time. It, too, lasted the length of the marriage.
I begin
to see a trend, here -- it would seem only a wedding justifies the purchase of
a new mattress? For, not long after moving to Washington, my wife and I decided
(okay, my wife decided) that it was time for a brand-new mattress. Bearing in
mind all the things I've mentioned, and being determined in belief that this
marriage would be the last for either of us, we purchased accordingly.
Enter the
Super Posturepedic memory foam mattress. Maybe that's temperpedic? It's hard to
keep up with the terms.
Now we're
talking big bucks. Thousands of dollars (more than one and closer to two). It
was fairly easy to justify, all things considered. With any luck and God
willing, this will be the last mattress we'll ever purchase. It is guaranteed
not to sink in the center more than a quarter of an inch for the next 25 years.
I should do as well...
And in
fact, there's nothing else like it -- simply the best mattress in the world. No
springs or coils, but various layers of different foam. When the cat jumps on
the bed at night I don't know it until she steps on me. Ann can get up and I
don't feel it -- my side of the bed doesn't move at all. Of course, I didn't
wake up when Ann got up using the old mattress, either. So, the important thing,
is that Ann doesn't wake up when I get out of bed - or roll over. The feel is
that of a nice, firm, quality mattress, yet somehow softer. No more aches and
pains in the morning.
So, here
is what I suggest -- stay married, (or not) save your money and treat yourself to a new
mattress. Enjoy a good night's sleep. Buy yourself some new pillows while
you're at it. You only live once.