The giant bed

Mike and I have been saving up for a new mattress for a long time. The one we had was 14 years old. It sagged and creaked, and the box spring was broken and made a musical jangling sound when weight was shifted just right. Finally last week we had saved enough. We raced out to the store, determined to find a good mattress before something else in our house broke and sucked away all the money.

I hate mattress shopping. First of all, it's embarrassing lying down on mattress after mattress while a salesperson stands there and watches you. Even if you ask him to give you some time on your own to try the different mattresses, he will only go a little way off, as if you can't see him watching you from over there. Then there's the fact that a lot of the mattresses feel the same to me. They're either hard, soft, or medium, and they're mostly medium. How am I supposed to know how they will feel after a whole night's sleep?

But Mike can sense the subtle differences among mattresses, so I let him narrow down the choices and then I tried the ones he liked. At one store we found a sale and several mattresses that Mike okayed. The one that we both felt was most comfortable was 50 percent off because they were changing the display. The only catch was its size. This thing was TALL, noticeably taller than the other mattresses near it. But we figured if we both liked it and it was on such a good sale, why not?

Yesterday the bed was delivered. The delivery guys had a little trouble getting the mattress through the turn at the top of the stairs, but with some judicious pushing they made it fit. They put the box spring in the frame, then put the mattress on top. Then they both looked at it. "Wow," one of them said. "That's a big mattress."


After the delivery guys left, I tried to figure out why the mattress looked so much taller at home than at the store. (I think it's the size of the room.) I found that I had to do some climbing to even get onto the bed. The kids came in and started laughing at me.


That's me sitting on the edge of the bed with my feet dangling above the floor.

So when Mike got home, we took the bed apart, folded up the frame and put it in the basement, and put the box spring and mattress on the floor. The new bed without the bed frame is still taller than our old bed was with the bed frame, but at least I can get into it without feeling like I need climbing gear! And yes, it's very comfortable, and we hope it lasts us at least another 14 years.