Only in my family

From November 8, 2008
I decided to call my parents on Thursday night because I haven't really been in contact with them lately and I was curious if they wondered if I had perished (I hadn't). In doing so, I got into a 20-minute debate/discussion/argument with my dad about Early American furniture. Something like this would only happen in my family, I think. After all, we have had all out grammar fights at the dinner table over prescribed usage for such things as "Jewish rabbi," "Easter Sunday," "completely destroyed," et. al.

The whole Early American furniture debate got started when my dad told me that he had bought some Early American furniture for my niece's bedroom. I told him it was ugly and wanted to know what little girl would want such hideous furniture. She'd want princess or Dora stuff, not Early American four poster bed and matching dresser. I told my dad that the popular style now in general furniture is either modern or post-modern and you can barely even buy Early American any more, except at garage sales (where he bought the furniture for my niece).

He wanted to know where I got my information, because he had talked to "people in the industry" and they said that Early American furniture represented 25% of furniture sales. We got diverted into a huge discussion of who the heck he knew who was "in the industry." I also wanted to know when he talked to people in the industry and he said it was the last time he bought furniture. I decided that it didn't count because it was 30 years ago and people were still celebrating the bicentennial. At this point, I couldn't stop laughing. My dad was slightly annoyed because he was trying to make his point, but he was cracking up, too. I ended up staying awake until midnight on a work night debating this with him.