Teamster Daddy's Extreme Living Room Makeover
One night during the height of T-Daddy's local union Teamster Years, Teamster Daddy backed a moving truck up to the front door and began moving out the matching nawgahide couch and armchair and and humble pressed wood twin endtables and coffee table and unloaded some much more impressive furniture. Mind you this was the 70s, but the furniture was not retro as you would probably picture, instead we like to call it T-Daddy's Spanish Armada period. Teamster wife had no say in the matter. It was nawghide out, Spanish Armada in. The haul was too massive to simply have mysteriously fallen off a truck, but perhaps the keys fell out of Bobby Reed's pocket instead.
"Bobby Reed," a shady friend, was like a Teamster Version of Burt Reynolds - or at least he thought he was that sexy and definitely had the ego to match. For some reason, T-Daddy ensconsed Bobby Reed in his very own weekend getaway pad in Possum Holler - but we'll save Bobby Reed and in influence on T-Daddy for a separate post all its own. The official T-Daddy line was that the Spanish Armada pieces came from Bobby Reed - they looked like they just got off the boat from Barcelona.
The living room was smoking! We had a plush grey wraparound couch - the first of the wraparound kind. Two white velveteen arm chairs trimmed with lime green cord and tassels. A heavy wood base complete with chains attaching each leg topped with a 150 lb piece of thick glass. An upgraded stereo with smoked glass sliding doors that sat atop our floor console. The icing on top came in the form of 2 sets each of heavy Spanish influence sconces that again were attached by chains. The sconces were so heavy that if they would have fallen on any of us it would have resulted in concussion or serious bodily injury.
The living room had become our own private lava lounge ala jungle room. For added effect, Teamster Wife and Daughters bought these deep glass bowls that we filled with water and had floating candles to finish off the look of the glass table.
That living room rocked. Sunday nights found us the hotspot for the neighborhood kids. If you drove down Wanda Drive you could hear the BeeGees, Peter Frampton, Barry Manilow, Rick James, and Donna Summer blasting from the stereo and the windows cast off a warm yellow glow from the floating candles and sconces.
For years our best friend Andy took turns with the Teamster Daughters helping us perfect our favorite disco moves. We all had our songs we sung solo on - it was an off week that didn't hold the weekly Sunday night dance session. The sconces were also great mood lighting for teenage seances, however, we also feared fire would engulf the living room so we didn't light them very often. Teamster Wife was right in the middle of us - she held court and to this day it was our special gathering place and provided the happiest memories of growing up at the T-Ranch.
The nawgahide furniture was shipped off to the McMurtry's home in the back of their General Store in White House (again another post). The true origin and the price tag for the Bobby Reed Spanish Armada furniture will forever be in question! As an adult, I was stopped in my tracks at Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, because I recognized it was decorated with some of the same pieces of Spanish Armada design furniture and accessories in the game room at Graceland.
Teamster Daddy may have not spent much time in the Teamster Ranch during those years, but his crib was nicely decorated and definitely gave the jungle room a run for it's money.
One night during the height of T-Daddy's local union Teamster Years, Teamster Daddy backed a moving truck up to the front door and began moving out the matching nawgahide couch and armchair and and humble pressed wood twin endtables and coffee table and unloaded some much more impressive furniture. Mind you this was the 70s, but the furniture was not retro as you would probably picture, instead we like to call it T-Daddy's Spanish Armada period. Teamster wife had no say in the matter. It was nawghide out, Spanish Armada in. The haul was too massive to simply have mysteriously fallen off a truck, but perhaps the keys fell out of Bobby Reed's pocket instead.
"Bobby Reed," a shady friend, was like a Teamster Version of Burt Reynolds - or at least he thought he was that sexy and definitely had the ego to match. For some reason, T-Daddy ensconsed Bobby Reed in his very own weekend getaway pad in Possum Holler - but we'll save Bobby Reed and in influence on T-Daddy for a separate post all its own. The official T-Daddy line was that the Spanish Armada pieces came from Bobby Reed - they looked like they just got off the boat from Barcelona.
The living room was smoking! We had a plush grey wraparound couch - the first of the wraparound kind. Two white velveteen arm chairs trimmed with lime green cord and tassels. A heavy wood base complete with chains attaching each leg topped with a 150 lb piece of thick glass. An upgraded stereo with smoked glass sliding doors that sat atop our floor console. The icing on top came in the form of 2 sets each of heavy Spanish influence sconces that again were attached by chains. The sconces were so heavy that if they would have fallen on any of us it would have resulted in concussion or serious bodily injury.
The living room had become our own private lava lounge ala jungle room. For added effect, Teamster Wife and Daughters bought these deep glass bowls that we filled with water and had floating candles to finish off the look of the glass table.
That living room rocked. Sunday nights found us the hotspot for the neighborhood kids. If you drove down Wanda Drive you could hear the BeeGees, Peter Frampton, Barry Manilow, Rick James, and Donna Summer blasting from the stereo and the windows cast off a warm yellow glow from the floating candles and sconces.
For years our best friend Andy took turns with the Teamster Daughters helping us perfect our favorite disco moves. We all had our songs we sung solo on - it was an off week that didn't hold the weekly Sunday night dance session. The sconces were also great mood lighting for teenage seances, however, we also feared fire would engulf the living room so we didn't light them very often. Teamster Wife was right in the middle of us - she held court and to this day it was our special gathering place and provided the happiest memories of growing up at the T-Ranch.
The nawgahide furniture was shipped off to the McMurtry's home in the back of their General Store in White House (again another post). The true origin and the price tag for the Bobby Reed Spanish Armada furniture will forever be in question! As an adult, I was stopped in my tracks at Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, because I recognized it was decorated with some of the same pieces of Spanish Armada design furniture and accessories in the game room at Graceland.
Teamster Daddy may have not spent much time in the Teamster Ranch during those years, but his crib was nicely decorated and definitely gave the jungle room a run for it's money.
posted by TD#3 at 6:58 PM
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