Put Your Head Down

Conversation lags. Avoid arguments, yet stir up some interest. Try dropping this sentence in the air, “How many beds have you bought in your life?” Then lean back, fold your hands on your lap and listen. One couple of you fair readers tried a water bed. The tale is that the wife filled it in the bedroom while the husband crawled under the house to be sure the floor wasn’t buckling under the weight. A daughter had a queen size bed delivered to a second story bedroom by way of a crane over a balcony. Men at either end would never have been able to make the curve around a narrow stairwell without being permanently stuck. My history has been a double that I still have from childhood to a king down to a queen and now I have moved to another room and a single for two reasons. It is easier to make up and I don’t have to worry about wearing out sheets on just one side.

Which leads to everything else needed to make that mattress useful. The inclusive term is bedclothes or bed linens, if you’re more picky, that are used over the mattress for hygiene, warmth, and maybe decoration. My mother was white all cotton, line-dry, press the top fold if necessary. I leaned toward wrinkle free colors, but didn’t go far enough to have all match through the bedspread and extra pillows. We had a crocheted bedspread that my husband’s grandmother made for each grandson which looked like the love it represented. However, toes around a sheet went through the loops when one turned over. For awhile it was put in a chair at night and folded at the foot of the bed in the daytime. I don’t know when it became no more. My mother-in-if law had monograms on sheets and pillowcases. Part of naming our daughter Sarah was because she felt monograms looked more impressive with the same letter on either side of the married name. Hers was HSH.

Whatever the term for a now generation is, they are seeking to do away with the top sheet in place of a duvet which, of course, needs a cover over the mundane down or polyester base. WSJ had a article on how and why this is necessary. Maybe the arching necessities are more simple. To have a clean bed is always a treat. To come back to your own bed after a trip says home at last.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:8