About the time I got married, in 1969, everything was avocado and harvest gold. I mean everything! And, strangely enough, it seemed to make sense that everything should be these two less than attractive colors. I never questioned it; I just bought stuff in those colors. Of course, we also had an accent color -- burnt orange. So decorating was simple enough. Take liberal doses of avocado and harvest gold, add a touch of burnt orange and who needs a decorator?
Even my parents went along with the craze. Their kitchen slipped from pink and stainless steel to avocado and the family room soon had avocado and harvest gold upholstered furniture. And we were all "with-it" and secure in our color choices.
We even bought an avocado car in 1971. Yes, it really was TWO shades of avocado and a very cool car indeed. It was a 1971 Dodge Dart and it had black bucket seats and a console.
Our son, David, was born in 1971, so naturally all of his baby stuff was also avocado and harvest gold. His infant carrier was avocado, with big gold and orange flowers on the vinyl lining. The crib was avocado, as was the matching dressing table. They both featured large yellow and orange flowers (ubiguitous in the early '70s).
With avocado and harvest gold, came shag carpet. We had avocado shag carpet in our first apartment in Illinois, and in our house in Southern California and even in our house in Maryland in 1976. It was everywhere and it made life simpler. Just buy sofas, chairs, drapes, toasters, towels, can openers, and everything else in those two magic colors and it all went together perfectly.
But sometime in the 1980's these two colors fell out of favor. For a whole generation of Americans this spelled trouble and expense. Life had been so simple. Now we had to pick new colors for everything. Jeez... just when everything matched.
We fortunately never succumbed to having any color major appliances and bathroom fixtures but white. That move alone probably saved us thousands of dollars. But for many Americans, the demise of avocado and harvest gold meant that perfectly good appliances were headed for the dump.
When we built our new house in 1992, we got rid of all things avocado and harvest gold and it was long overdue. Well, I must confess to still having a few avocado kitchen utensils and some sheets and towels here and there, but no more furniture for sure. Yes, there are couple of fondue pots...oops!
The colors definitely shifted and we got with the new palette. We have soft pinks, blues and greens -- just like I grew up with. And some of my mother's stuff salvaged from the basement after her death is a perfect match. Strange how these things work out!
I know right now the colors are shifting again. Watch enough HGTV and you learn that the new hot colors are bold. Walls aren't light colors anymore; they are vivid colors. I keep thinking maybe I should paint all the walls some new bright colors. Then I remember-- give it ten years and they will just have to be painted light colored again and think how hard it would be to repaint over fuschia. No, I'll just ride it out this time around and always remember to buy white appliances and bathroom fixtures. But, I hope I am don't have to buy any of that stuff any time soon. And if I want to use some old avocado relic, I will, because who cares?
No comments:
Post a Comment