There are many things I’ve been itching to write about, but the mood just hasn’t seemed right because I’ve been staring at piles of laundry that need to be put away and at my big red suitcase waiting to be unpacked–its contents slowly making their way across my bedroom floor.

Then there is the matter of the massive featherbed that we have no place for. Right now it’s sitting on my bedroom floor. I moved it upstairs from the playroom/guest room in a swift maneuver to get the house ready for an unexpected playdate. Now where does it go? It takes up an entire closet. It’s a featherbed. It doesn’t smush down to a nice little pile of soft down. It’s big and bulky and has hard goosefeathers in it. Ouch. Is there a way I can put it in the attic without ruining it. My mom likes the darn thing, so we pull it out when she comes. She says it helps her from getting chilled at night. Other uses for the bed? It has been used as a big place for kids jump onto from high places. And, to use the words of my husband (tonight) it sometimes becomes “the biggest dog-bed in the world.” (Yes Charlie has been VERY happy lately, but that’s a whole other post.)

Still, I’m very attached to this bulky, prickly, queen-sized featherbed. Why? Maybe it’s because it brings memories of buying it excitedly from LLBean with my husband when we had very little money and lived in a colder climate. What a luxury it was. Or maybe it’s because I used to play the guitar and sing “Grandma’s Feather Bed” when I was 11 years old.

How does it go? Everybody now….

When I was a little bitty boy, just up off the floor
We used to go down to Grandma’s house every month-end or so
We’d chicken pie and country ham, homemade butter on the bread
But the best darn thing about Grandma’s house was her great big feather bed

/ D G D A7 / D G A7 D / :

{Refrain}
It was nine feet high and six feet wide, soft as a downy chick
It was made from the feathers of forty-’leven geese
Took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick
It’d hold eight kids, four hound dogs and a piggy we stole from the shed
We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun on Grandma’s feather bed

/ D - G D / - - / E7 A7 / D - G D / - G A7 D /

After supper we’d sit around the fire, the old folks’d spit and chew
Pa would talk about the farm and the war and my Granny’d sing a ballad or two
I’d sit and listen and watch the fire ’till the cobwebs filled my head
Next thing I know I’d wake up in the morning in the middle of the old feather bed

{Refrain}

Well I love my Ma, I love my Pa, love Gran’ and Grandpa too
Been fishing with my uncle, I rassled with my cousin
I even kissed Aunt Lou
But if ever had to make a choice, I guess it ought to be said
That I’d trade them all plus the gal down the road for Grandma’s feather bed

{Refrain}

Yes, while you were all going to Madonna concerts, i was singing John Denver tunes and memorizing musicals. Well, actually, if you were going to Madonna concerts you are probably a few years younger than me now that I think about it. Just a few, though.

Do you still like me? I wish I could say I was that wispy lady in this LLBean photo, but I’m not.