Background – The Grandparents come to visit:
When my grandparents came to visit over Christmas, my grandfather commented on how comfortable the mattress in our guest bedroom is. He said he’d had the best night’s sleep he’d had in a long time. Now this was both a compliment (my grandparents travel rarely, and when they do, they usually don’t sleep well) and concerning. Immediately I started thinking that perhaps he was having health issues that were preventing him from sleeping well.
Me: “Do you think you have sleep apnea.”
Papa: “Have what?”
Me: “You know when you wake up because you temporarily stop breathing?”
Papa: “I hope not. I don’t think I wake up at all.”
Me: “Than why aren’t you sleeping well?”
Papa: “Well because our bed isn’t very comfortable.”
“Well maybe you just need a new one? When was the last time you bought a new mattress?”
This is when grammy jumps into the conversation because papa clearly doesn’t know when they bought their last mattress. Grammy is the shopper of the pair, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t know. She states that she can’t recall ever purchasing a mattress. Now, this sounds strange to me, and they aren’t sleeping on the floor, so I know they’ve purchased one as some point in their lives.
She thinks about it for a few minutes then tells me that their current mattress was likely a hand me down from my great-grandmother. Yup, you read that right, they’ve never purchased a mattress. They are both in their 80′s and they’ve been sleeping on a hand me down mattress from my great granny the whole time they’ve been married (almost 60 years!).
When I questioned why they hadn’t purchased another one, her answer was simple, “Well, we had a perfectly good one, why would we?“. My response, “Well you’ve been sleeping on it for almost 60 years, and it wasn’t even new when you received it, so I’m guessing it’s probably a throwback from the pilgrims”. This gave everyone a good laugh.
So this year as a birthday gift to my grandfather (and grandmother), I purchased the grandparents a new mattress and box spring. Could they have purchased it themselves? Yes. Are they too cheap to do so? Probably. Papa says he told my grandmother that they should buy a new mattress when they sold their house and moved into a smaller apartment. She said, “no.” Did I mention I come from a family of very strong-minded and independent women? Well I do, and when grandma says, “no.” that’s the end of the conversation.
Fortunately for papa, I was on his, “side” and I can keep grandma, “in check” (in a nice way of course). I told her that I would not allow them to sleep on that bed any longer and they must choose a new one immediately. My mother took them shopping since bf and I live 8 hours away and couldn’t be there to help them. They picked out a nice mattress/box spring set and it was delivered on Thursday.
$59 mattresses, what a steal!
When the delivery men came to drop off the new bed, they picked up the old one to dispose of. When they lifted up the old mattress (which was in remarkably good condition for such an old mattress), what did they find? A price tag. Cost of the mattress, circa dinosaurs roaming the earth…$59.00! The delivery men and my grandparents roared with laughter when they saw the tag according to my mother.
I know my great granny is smiling down on us pleased and proud that she got her “money’s worth” from that mattress purchase! And in case you’re curious, I did a little research and per: www.thepeopleshistory.com a Serta Foam Mattress cost $59.95 in 1950. Approximate age of the mattress according to me, about 65 or so.
Image: Rachel Titariga