It's called a Gossip Chair. It was in my Nana and Grampy's home. The phone on it is a PB take on a vintage phone. When my Nana sold her home to move down here, I was asked if there was anything I wanted from the house. I was so scared that someone else was going to want this chair but fate played it's part and it was mine.
When I was growing up, this chair next to the stairway and it had a phone on it and an address book on the shelf under the seat. For many years the phone that sat there was an old black rotary phone, very heavy in the hand. It also was the first and only phone in the house and it wasn't a small home. Many an hour was spent in this gossip chair on the phone. I loved this chair and the phone. On holidays we would call family members that couldn't be with us from it and if I wasn't there for a holiday I could imagine the people I was speaking to sitting at that chair, under the stairs, beneath the clock.
My Nana's home was my favorite place on earth. There are smells and sounds and sights that I will forever associate with that house. When I was extremely stressed, I would dream about her home and it became a safe haven in my dreams. Having this chair in my home is like a dream come true.
36 comments:
That's cool.
Hard to see, the wood being dark and all, or is it me and my puter?
#1
Very sweet. My grandparents have one of these chairs too which also has an old rotary phone on it. Light blue of course.
You are going to look so amazing on that gossip chair when you are all puffy and pregnant ... go ahead, sit down right now and call me as soon as you are done telling everyone that you aren't really pregnant ;)
So cool that you got this.
It is a little hard to see, but I love the description. It's easy to appreciate such a unique piece of furniture!
Wow that is so cool! I love that it's called a gossip chair and i'm glad you ended up w/ it!
What a wonderful memory! I love it.
I have a few antiques that I got from my grandfather's house when he died. I treasure them dearly. Enjoy your very cool bench!
Oh wow! I love antique furniture - especially when there is a fond memory of family story attached.
I've been noticing that toddlers lately wander around when they are pretending to talk on the phone and 10 years ago, toddlers sat in one place when they were pretending to talk on the phone.
OMG how cool is that? A gossip chair. I need me a gossip chair. Oh wait. It's my computer chair :)
Judy, that is a great observation.
i Love it!
#2
That's neato! You do need to come to auctions with us! We're headed for one tomorrow... come on along!
I have never heard of a gossip chair. Pretty cool. I love it. I think I need one.
I love Crackberry Friday! I look forward to it all week. And this week did not disappoint. Such sweet words, that is so awesome. My grandma and I share a b-day so she gave me her special birth stone ring when I was like 10 years old. And as any 10 year old would, I lost it. If I could go back in time and kick myself I would be none she is gone and I really wish I had her ring.
That's a great pic....but the story behind it is even better.
I love old and vintage...I want one of those! :)
It is so beautiful. It brings back memories of my grandmother's house and all the smells and sounds that make me remember.
Beautiful, your gossip chair!
I've never seen one of those, that is sooo cool!
Love the picture, made me cry.
Doing alot of that today.
Very sad.
WAIT!
Candid Carrie says your pregnant!
Are you?
Really?
That's what I've been waiting for, see how rumors get started ;)
I was never blessed to know any of my grandparents very well. But I do have an old desk that belonged to my paternal grandmother. She died when I was 3 so I have no conscious memory of her. When my grandfather died when I was 10, I asked my dad if I could have this desk. I've taken it with me ever since. It's scarred and stained. But on the bar underneath are all the scuff marks from my shoes where I'd put my feet while I wrote or did homework. There's a burn scar where a stick of incense fell over and I didn't realize it was still lit...that was when I was around 17. It sits here in my dining room, facing the big window ledge. My computer is on it. It's beautiful to me, and priceless.
what a special memory for you and now you can create new ones in your home with this piece of family history!
Gorgrous piece. I love it! And to have the sentimental value behind it is priceless!
That is a beautiful gossip chair. We had one when I was growing up. Don't even know where it got to. Big family, moved a lot. But now it is yours to make more memmories with. Cool
I LOVE it. Those kinds of items that hold the memories. Plus, it's a Gossip Chair, who wouldn't love that?
I just LOVE antiques, especially the ones with the stories behind them! I found your blog thru another link, and I'm very impressed! I have a new blog, and I'm doing a giveaway. Please click on http://poprs.blogspot.com/2008/06/giveaway-tuesday.html to enter the contest. Hope you drop by soon!
I didn't even have to read the title--I was all, "GOSSIP BENCH!!!" ('Cause that's what we rednecks call 'em.) It is gorgeous, too--honestly, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.
We have a house full of antiques that I inherited when my grandmother and aunt passed away. Some might refer to these items as "old folks' stuff," but we feel as if these pieces are just an extension of our family. Plus, my grandmother's china cabinet STILL smells exactly like her. She's been gone 13 years, but her scent lingers. That is worth more than a billion dollars to me. Truly.
OK, enough with my Hallmark sap...thanks for sharing your story.
Love the gossip chair and the story behind it. My grandparents used to have a black bench in their kitchen and above it one of those old fashion wall phones with the thing you put to your ear. I used to think that was so cool!
I actually, just painted that black bench white and it is now at the kitchen table.
Love grandparent memories! (Well most of them anyway!)
Tears...I wonder what I'll inherit from my grandparents monstrous beach house. There's lots of medical equipment...but none I can think of that I want...maybe the pool table, haha.
Aren't grandmothers the best memory ever?
We used to have one when I was little too. With a black rotary phone which I eventually sold on eBay for $70.00. Wish I had it back now.
That's a cool looking chair! I'll always remember specific furniture from both of my grandmom's houses - they lived in Germany, though, so I was never able to "claim" any of them.
What a sweet story! I love this chair and it's history.
My grandma didnt have a gossip chair, or even a phone for that fact..but I will always remember the feel of being at her house as a kid and the smells coming from the kitchen and the smell of her perfume in her room, and the smell of my grandpas pipe in the living room and on the porch, and thier bathroom always smelled of that pink soap, dove I think it is called. Good times.
Today however, I have gotten my grandmother a blackberry and have taught her to text, but she mostly calls..to which I stop what im doing, no matter what im doing, to answer her call.
WAIT!!!!
Your pregnant???
Thats what whats her name said a few posts up.
Happy you ended up with it! So great to get something with so many found memories attached.
SORRY I have been MIA around your blog... but have had a problem getting on.. only your header has been coming up for me.... Anyone else have this problem?
That is a beautiful piece. I love it. So much that I wouldn't even consider painting it if it were mine. :-)
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