The Chair

Do people still have "chairs" anymore? You know, like how people say, "I remember a long time ago when Grandad used to sit in His Chair and watch Dan Rather talk about the world." Or "My Dad would come home and sit in His Chair with the evening paper."

I always thought the chair was an odd icon of a bygone era- no one I know or their father's have big, leather easy chairs where they think about the plight of man. You hear about armchair critics and so on, but have true armchair experts gone the way of the dodo? What are men doing nowadays instead of coming home, slipping off their Florsheims and settling into their Chair to involve themselves with the rest of the planet Earth. Is it an age? Do you have to reach a certain age to get a Chair?

But is the Chair there because of the man, or is the man there because of the Chair? Which came first? What is the history of "The Chair?" What does it mean? Where did it come from and where is it going? To answer these questions perhaps we need to look back into our domestic past. Let's start when people had "sitting rooms."

Here are the facts that I have gleaned from various sources:*

Sitting rooms replaced the Parlour, and I imagine the sitting room's inception came with the advent of our modern consumer stereo equipment. People would cease to need the antiquated 'Parlour' to entertain guests and began exhibiting the new technology of the time, possibly as a sign of status. The Sitting Room would probably remain as we moved from gramaphones to radios and more traditional record players. I'm guessing this is all circa early 20th century, the 20s and 30s. Around the beginning of the 40s, while America went to war(as did the rest of the world), the radio and the sitting room became increasingly important. Thusly, when the war ended and we zoomed toward the middle of the century in our convertibles and coupes, we were beginning to raise families, and television was rapidly being introduced to the average joe. Technology takes over again and the sitting room experienced higher evolution, going through mitosis and gave way to the "family room" and "living room." Both were reminiscent of ye olde sitting room, but as the living room became more formal, the family room became a place for the television and the children, as well as advancement in furniture technology resulted in cheaper and more durable sofas, where a family could spend time together. It was this fact** that I think caused men to seek refuge in a Chair.

But sometimes a man didn't want to be seen as a family man and he needed to lock himself in an emotional "tower" and sit on his "throne," governing and dispensing "advice(loud)" and punishment(loud).

I sort of have a chair at my girlfriend's house, but it could be considered a quiet rebellion of her relentless hatred of style for such a comfortable chair. Still, I don't engage in Chair-like activities in this chair besides television viewing. I think the closest thing I do to a Chair activity is take off my shoes after walking in. I don't read the paper, smoke my pipe(or any pipe for that matter), or read anthropology books.

Even though this chair is very comfortable, it's certainly not the style of a Chair. You know what I mean- huge and imposing; large backed and soft leather; probably a brown or burgandy in color and is probably handmade. The chair I sit in actually is dark red, but it's got a weird, wannabe argyle pattern on it, has a small back, is definitely not leather, not imposing, and was probably made by an Indonesian woman with bound feet. My girlfriend refers to it as "the gay harlequin chair."

I suppose that I'm not meant to have a chair at this point in my life. I'm too young and I haven't been overseas in any war; I don't have a family of two and a half children, nor do I own a house and work in an office building.

Perhaps a Chair is a badge, a medal, a source of pride and accomplishment. It's something that you have worked so hard to get to, something that is worth more than any other possession, but just less than your house and family and job, yet deep down you know that should anything happen- you've always got your Chair. It's the place to hide in plain sight, thinking about the rest of your life ahead of you; wondering what happened to everything innocent in the world. Rebellion against everything you know is wrong and harmful, from a place of serenity and safety. From here you can grumble and murmur to deaf ears, blind eyes, and turned backs. Firmly, comfortably planted in the one place you will command forever.

A Throne for a king- except you don't have a country or servants or much power.

So, maybe you're just a guy in a chair, reading the paper in a sweater vest.





*[data not found; sources non-existant]
**not an actual fact


(Here's another question- do women ever take ownership of a chair? Or is it not as important to them? "Grandma used to come home and sit in her chair with her pipe."

Follow up question: Did (do?) women ever smoke pipes? Or are males humanity's pipesmokers?)