At the age of seven, my younger sister and I joined my parents in moving from our old townhouse to our first house. This was Suburbia at its finest, a cul-de-sac even. No more co-operative housing for our flock, we were a single family dwelling family (?) now. Cue the
I remember becoming quite enamored with the thick brown shag carpeting of our living room – quite par for a house built in the late ‘1970s. To me it was “shaggily” inviting and had a texture that pleased my bare feet very much. Had I been more discerning for my age, I might have thought it went well with Mom and Dad’s floral print sofa set, but I digress.
Accordingly, you can imagine my dismay when after only a few short months I became aware of their intention to do away with the “floor fur”, as my sister similarly endearingly referred to it, and replace it with parquet flooring. What on earth were they thinking? Where was the appeal in spending next Christmas morning pajama-bottomed on imitation wood squares rather than all that fluffy brown carpet goodness?
Their reasoning was equal parts completely logical and utterly nonsensical to a seven-year-old. Keeping this carpet clean was quite an ordeal, and Mom spoke of “ickies” (direct quote) that lodged themselves deep in the roots of the shag fibers and out of the reach of our 10-kilo green tank of an Electrolux vacuum. Protests were futile and a short time later the floor fur was torn out and discarded – the first of many home improvement projects Dad would embark on over the course of the next 5 years or so.
Today, I’d be embarrassed to admit I had a fondness for shag carpet at one time. However, I am aware of there being individuals who have a deeply-seated enthusiasm for recreating all things 1970s. I couldn’t help but think of them when I recently came across the selection of new home vacuums from Cymax Stores Online. It’s quite likely the appeal of shag carpet will not be as easily overruled by the “icky” factor considering the deep-cleaning suction power of a Dirt Devil vacuum or Kalorik vacuum.
In addition, the vacuums of today make the “tank” I referred to earlier seem even more onerous than it did those twenty-some years ago. Handheld vacuums and rechargeable vacuums make carpet and / or upholstery cleaning a lightweight breeze, and are just as easily perused at cymaxstores.com with the wondrous convenience of online shopping.
Heck, if I could have sat my Mom down in front of a PC way back then and sold her on the merits of a steamer vacuum, I might just have had more time to relish that floor fur my sister and I liked so much.
At the least the floral print couch lasted until the late ‘80s
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