bye bye, old friend

Tomorrow is a dark day in my life. In my childhood home, we are finally upgrading the last kitchen appliance to join the 21st century. Our oven is last that remains of the suite of harvest gold appliances that came with the home when it was purchased by my folks in 1980.

it even looks like it is smiling.

 All through my childhood (and up until the last 5 years), all of the appliances this color. It looked similar to this kitchen featured on uglyhousephotos.com

As a youth, it was the norm...as a teen, I thought it was ass tacky...but as an adult, I have grown to love it and got sad when one by one, each piece of my personal history has pooped out and had to be replaced by something shiny and new (and decidedly more boring and less charming.)

Yesterday I was lamenting to my mom how attached I had gotten to furniture that had been in my family home forever. As I bitched about the haggard looking leather chair that had to be tossed last year, she shared with me a fun story, making me appreciate something we still had on a whole new level.

She informed me that the oak bed [Tangent: Formally part of a bunk bed] and pieces of the furniture suite that is now housed in the guest room/office were identical to the ones in Elliot had in ET. [Tangent: Yes, that's right there is famous nostalgic furniture in my home.]  She said she ordered it for my brothers around the time the movie came out from a furniture company in NC, and there was such a rush on it from people who were obsessive about the film that it was on back order. [Tangent: She claims it was coincidental that she picked the same furniture...and it wasn't until she called the furniture company that they told her about why the delay was occurring.] Through my twisted logic, my mom should be a set designer for Mr. Spielberg.

Fortunately for my sanity, my brothers never housed a creepy translucent skinned alien in their closet,  because we all know that he was the cause of many a childhood nightmare. Maybe with all my new free time, I should stage the spare bedroom like an exact replica of Elliot's room. Anyone got some 80s era packaging Reese's Pieces on hand?