the beanbag
Back in the ’70s, the beanbag chair became a huge household fad. No family “rec-room” was complete without one—well, that, along with a Pong video game console and lava lamp. Anyway, suburban household that we were, a brown leather-like beanbag was indeed purchased (it really was the throne of choice when zoning out on Pong and the soon to come video game behemoth Atari). However, our cats took to it like a litter box and persisted in peeing on it. Thus the fad ended in our house, and quite possibly in many other pet-friendly houses across the nation, as the beanbag temporarily faded into pop culture furnishing backgrounds (although it’s quite possible the beanbag was simply upstaged by the more interior design-friendly papasan bowl-shaped chair). I know there was a more decorative beanbag resurgence in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and I suspect the “chair” has now become a staple goofy kid’s room item. This is, of course, a whole load of first world crap, because here’s what’s really going on in the third world with beanbags…
