The Bed The Bear Likes

 

How often you do this depends on who you ask.

Some say every five to seven years. Some say eight. Some say ten. There is no magic number.  But one number that is not thrown around is 25. A mattress is not supposed to last 25 years.

My husband had moved to Virginia before our wedding.  He got a new job but I was unable to join him right away. We picked up a few pieces of furniture from his sister who lives in Maryland with a U-Haul we rented to move him to his new apartment. She had three things to give him, a couch, a bed and an ottoman. That's all you need to get started, right?

His sister's mattress was temporary. New marriage. New bed. I remember shopping for our first bed because it was our first huge purchase. We started our search in a mattress warehouse type store, and it was overwhelming from the start. So many choices! It was sensory overload from the minute we crossed the threshold.

We hadn't even bounced on a bed yet before a saleswoman started talking us up. We proceeded to thoroughly explain our situation. We were young and naive and didn't know we could use the phrase 'we're just browsing'. It didn't take long before she uttered a sentence that would stay with us for two decades of marriage. There was a large bed advertisement poster near where we were standing and she said, "This is the bed the bear likes."

In the poster, there was a large brown bear laying on bed. I guess the message was since bears are in the business of sleep, during their hibernation period, they would know what a good bed was.

But here is the weird part. She said that to us in all seriousness. She didn't let out a chuckle after she told humans to choose the bed an animal would pick. She said her line and expected us to say wrap it up we'll take it. I looked at my then fiancé, but we hadn't been together long enough to have a look that conveys everything without saying a word. I think we told our salesperson we wanted to keep looking and that we were only on our first stop.

We ended up splurging on the bed we finally picked, and I remember signing up for the financing - zero interest if we paid if off within a year. We had never bought anything that cost more than $100 and it seemed very daunting to try and pay $1000 off in twelve months. We had no idea that bed would last us 25 years. If you break it down it's $40 a year. Not a bad price at all.

Until a few months ago, we thought we were keeping our bed for another 25 years. The box spring was in bad shape but the mattress was doing just fine.. that is despite being moved to six different dwellings throughout the decades of our marriage. A few months ago, my husband and I noticed we were waking up feeling sore. Based upon the state of our box spring, we knew it was time to get another mattress.

We went to a nearby department store and visited their mattress section. We laid on so many mattresses it was hard to keep track. There is so much to choose from and there are a lot of foam pillow tops these days. When you have a mattress that has lasted two decades, we wanted to find something similar to last the next two. We went from bed to bed until we found the one we thought could stand the test of time.

Our new bed was delivered last week. I was not home at the time of delivery and that was a good thing. I am very sentimental these days and I bet I would have cried 

when they took the old bed away. My husband had the new bed made up when I got home from work. It looked nice but sleeping in it would be the true test.

 

A week in, I am not convinced this bed is the one for us. It seems a little firm for my taste but who knows. Maybe some time is all it will take to adjust and since we are hoping for another 25-year run, I think we just have to take it day by day.

 *My blog is featured in The Valley Mirror each week in the On My Mind column. The Valley Mirror Newspaper covers the Steel Valley and Woodland Hills communities.