Muriel is unhappy with the kitchen reno. They forgot abut the old splintery floor. Mother says they have to wait, there’s no more money for a fancy new floor. This is 1934 after all, Muriel – the Depression, remember that?
Then Muriel sees an ad for Congoleum Gold Seal Rugs and Mother’s ready to whip right down to the store and shell out for a kitchen rug. Huh? A rug? How is this going to solve any problems?
Happy ending: Muriel has the gang over for a “kitchen party” – wow, that’s some hot time they’re having. A couple of elderly F. Scott Fitzgerald clones talking about insurance over by the cupboards, Muriel sitting in a hard chair, and Muriel’s pal sitting on the table. Don’t they have more than one chair?
“Don’t bother about crumbs,” our gracious hostess tells the scintillating group. Which kind, Muriel? The cupcake bits that are being ground into the rug, or the ones wearing the Arrow collars?
gold seal “rugs” are actually linoleum. not rugs at all.
I have some ducky ads from the 20′s, when they were the latest craze.
hmm ok…but don’t they have to lift up the rug to clean underneath?
Congoleum “rugs” were actually pieces of linoleum, patterned and bordered to look like carpets. They were quite the newest thing in the late teens and twenties, according to ads in some of my vintage magazines.
I’ve actually seen two of them, at one of our local antique stores. The store is a converted two-story bungalow and the “rugs” are on the floor in the upstairs.
Amy – Yeah, exactly…I think that they are kidding themselves. A wall-to-wall rug in the kitchen? I sense a mess…and many crumbs…
I put black and white linoleum, like that optical illusion stuff, in your advert in my foyer once. The first time my cats approached it they were terrified. It must have looked as though the floor was full of holes to them, and even though they could see me standing on it they would not come into the foyer. I had to pick them up and plop them onto the lino—both went flying out. It took a few days for them to get used to it.
Crumbs…hilarious!
Tess – I never would have thought of it as being scary to cats but now that I think of it, I reckon our two would be completely flummoxed by it!
Toontz – Yeah, I think crumbs are the least of the potential rug problems.
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