A Bed, a Bed at Last

Floor sleepers of the world unite! Rise up and defend yourselves against the overt discrimination that exists, be it your mother, kids or friends. What? You sleep on the floor? Poor you can’t afford a bed? Here, maybe we can help you.

Okay, it’s not for everyone but it works for me and probably more people than you realize. Last night, even with my knees screaming at me like banshees, it was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a while.

I hauled my bedroll in a black trash bag from my U-Haul storage unit (picture hobo Bob on the subway with his stash bag) down to the ‘studio’. Then it was off to Century 21 Department Store to find something to cushion the hard parquet floor.

The store was a trip. How many people know that discount shopping was born in NYC with the opening of E. J. Korvette? I remember it well. How many who now take discount shopping for granted know about the infamous ‘fair trade’ laws that Korvette defied. Plain and simple, discounts were illegal as in law breaking. Can you believe it?

The spirits of Eugene Ferkauf and Korvette are alive and well at Century 21, the operative word being alive. The store was a beehive of shopping energy to the max. After finding the separate home store building, I located the bedding department. I wandered around looking at bedding stuff and asked a young man in the department for advice. He steered me to a foam mattress pad. Guess what? He turned out to be a floor sleeper having to deal with his mother’s admonishments. Funny…but figures!

Next it was on to the bath department. I found a good quality bath towel for 3 bucks and was looking for a hand towel. There was a rack of I think “zero twist towels”. I had to peer around the rack to read the pricing sign. Shortly a diminutive woman looking like the towel fairy queen floated by and said “three ninety-nine, a dollar ninety-nine” in her lilting Brooklyn Jewish accent as she pointed to each bin with her wand (or whatever it was). I am going to wire myself and blog some of these sounds and conversations. I think they’re priceless!

BFN BB