Ten-Finger Exercises

Window Coverings and that whole decorating thing

When I was first married we lived in an furnished apartment. It came with curtains on the windows. Our first move into base housing was in Japan, at Itazuke AFB, a small air base that had seen its heyday during the Korean war. While staying in the VOQ waiting for some quarters to become available, we were invited for dinner to several people's homes. The hostess went on and on about the new furniture they had gotten. As the old brown was being phased out, a new avocado green sofa had just been delivered. She was so excited. "And it goes with my colors: gold, orange and green!"

That was a new idea to me, that people had colors.

Having been an ad copywriter for a furniture chain, I certainly knew that sofas and chairs came in colors; but somehow it had escaped me that individuals picked their furnishings to match a color palette. In fact, considering the industry at that time, everybody had green, orange and gold. They reappeared ten years later as the accents for "earth tones."

"What are your colors?" was exclusively wedding talk to me until then.

Curtains were not a regular commodity at the BX, and I soon discovered I would have to make them. These were the days of multi-layered window coverings, sheers with solids over them, but the fashion was not as fancy as it is today. If your house had cornices, then you had something to cover the top of the traverse rods. That was about it.

Fabric in the BX was limited too, but so much less expensive than on the economy that most of us bought there. Raw silk was about 90 cents a yard, and probably the most common choice for draperies. Because the houses had radiators, we could choose to have casement length draperies without feeling embarrassed over being out of style. Pleater tape was a new concept to me, and it worked great. It was still a job covering all those windows.

Back in the states my husband was appalled at the price of such things. I think he thought we could do the whole house for $50, when ready-mades for one window were about that even then.

The day my realtor mother told me about a client from 'up north' who took down all the window coverings that had come with a house and didn't plan to put any up, I was shocked. Bare, naked windows? Shocked and then delighted. I have preferred some kind of shades, on the necessary windows, ever since, even though they aren't the most fashionable thing any more. In the winter it is so nice to have the light flooding in. In the summer, the tree leaves shade the windows from the intense heat.

I'm watching a bird on a limb outside my window right now. It has its mouth open, like a panting dog. It's 100 out there!