Well, I could put your sorry ass to work moving furniture, but you're too far away. All the pepperoni pizza and Seagrams' 7 you could hold. I'll think of you when we are Moving The Dresser.
The Dresser. I fell in love with it when I first saw it, love at first sight at the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store on Magazine street. I would take the Magazine street bus to work in the morning, and home in the evening, and I'd take a pass through the thrift store every week or so before I walked up Soniat to Prytania, and home.
And the dresser was there, and it was gorgeous. French Empire, mahogany, sinuous curves, six feet wide, three feet tall, with a 6 ft. x 3 ft. mirror. Weight one ton. Just kidding. $300, back in 1979. I would go in there, and rub my hands over the mahogany, and pull out the drawers, and marvel at the dovetail joints. Later, when I learned more about furniture, and wood, I figured out that it is handmade, probably in the early 19th century, possibly in New Orleans. I don't know what it's worth, but it's a lot. Possibly $10,000, in good shape. I've never refinished it, it's the original finish.
And, finally, I decided to ask the people who worked in the shop to let me pay them something a week, and finally, I paid it off, and then, for the very first time, I experienced Moving The Dresser. It takes at least three adults to Move The Dresser, even with the drawers removed. Moving The Dresser up stairs is an experience that I've never wanted to repeat, although I have. Getting it around corners, without dinging the mahogany. Because I am the one that loves it, being cursed at by Chris and one special friend who has volunteered to help us move it, only to experience, first-hand, what it feels like to move a one-ton piece of precious mahogany up two flights of stairs without dinging it. We've lost more friends that way.
I lived on Prytania Street for ten years, on Sundorn Street for three years, and where I am now for eleven years. Better that than Move The Dresser.
And now it is time to Move The Dresser. Again.
Chris has helped me move it every time ~ I asked him whether we should just give it away and let someone else move it. He said, "After all we've been through, moving that dresser? No way. You're going to be buried in that dresser." |
