Who remembers shag carpeting?

These blossoms look sort of shaggy - PL

 

 

 

                The “back” bedroom at Couchwood has always been dark. Two double-hung wood-framed windows look out from the rock wall of the house onto the concrete-floored porch. When I was a child, the back porch was wood up so high, and screen to the ceiling. Our youngest brother says he remembers the porch being completely open when he “owned” that room.
               
                At some point, Dad paneled the entire porch cheap-brown, leaving four small, metal-framed windows. After that, the bedroom was dubbed “the dark room.” It was also called “the boys’ room.”
              
               Our eldest brother remembers the room with linoleum nearly to the walls and a worn rug in front of a double bed with an “iron frame mostly rusted and chipped of its original paint.” He surmises it was originally in the house that burned—the reason for building Couchwood. A pull-string bare light bulb was the inadequate lighting at that time.  

         

               Finally--none of us remembers when-- green shag carpet was added, as was a ceiling fan and light. Celery-colored paneling was nailed over the original plaster.  (This is the one thing I truly love about the two back bedrooms and hall. I wonder why the master bedroom didn’t get the same wall treatment.)
 

             At another time, it became the sickroom of our maternal grandmother. Mom was the eldest girl, so she “took care” of Grandma until her death.
 

             Later, Mom decided to carpet (or perhaps re-carpet) the other two bedrooms and the hall. Why she didn’t include the back room is an enigma. The room may have been treated like the crazy-aunt-in-the-attic syndrome: just keep the door closed.
 

             And then Mom died.

 

            Since June of 2006, grandson Billy and I have lived in the old house. He was 16 and I was 70 when we moved in. Guess who got the back room? Not me! I got Mom’s room. Dad’s room—with the half-bath built by taking both the room closet and the linen closet in-- faced both north and west. I called it the guest room/ Billy's bathroom.
 

            The kid got the back room—a perfect fit. He didn’t care about the carpet. A better place to spit popcorn kernels, throw wrappers on the floor, strew clothes and shoes anywhere. Just so there was an air conditioner (we had one installed), cable (we subscribed with resultant holes drilled in the wood), and strip outlets for myriad electronic devices.
 

           To the three dressers from Grandma Flossie’s home, we added cheap book/VHS cases, two rolling carts with two surfaces each, one of which held a lamp and a “face-fan.” KB liked it “cold” when sleeping.
 

          Eight years later, I decided the carpets needed to go. I had to strip all the small things from both the room and the tops of the heavy pieces. I stuck all the wires and cords and remotes into one dresser.
 

         Guess what’s NOT going back into the back room?
 

         By the way, Mullins still sells shag carpeting!