YSaC, Vol. 392: If you act now, we’ll throw in these lead paint chips for the kids to chew on.
2009 August 13
REDUCED!!!!PROTECTIVE Pad for 42″ table – RETRO 1950’S – $40
Protective pad for dining table. $40 OBO Make me an offer!46″ round; with leaf pad, 46″ wide X 62″ long. Was on my mother’s kitchen table for 50 years, table still looks perfect! It will definitely protect you tabletop! Even from cigarettes! The pad has a few, slight burns on it from my daddy smoking for 30 years!My son has the table now that they (my parents) are both deceased. He likes the look of the maple tabletop (that never saw the light of day while mama had it!) The leaf pad has only been used very rarely when we extended the table for holidays, it looks brand new!Backing is felt, it’s the brown side in the pic. If not the same as “THE STAR”, it’s very similar!The cats in the picture do not come with it, they just like their picture taken!
So if you want a table pad that is (a) made of asbestos, (b) smells of 30 years worth of smoke, (c) has cigarette burns on it (good thing asbestos doesn’t catch fire!), and (d) may or may not have been used as a cat playground, here you go.
JenB sent in this ad, saying, “It makes you wonder if the poster’s parents, now both deceased, died from the asbestos exposure or from her Daddy’s 30 years of smoking.”
I’ve never even heard of a “table pad” before. What a great way to uglify what was probably a very nice piece of furniture. Maybe this is a crazy question but couldn’t people just, like, leave the table bare and not dangle lit cigarettes over it?
I would, however, like to buy that beautiful stripey cat. Especially if it has a leaf attachment.
Back in the 50s, it would have been seen as (literally) wicked wastefulness to not cover “good” furniture all the time. Damaged or weathered furniture was seen as the ultimate sign of a lazy housekeeper, which was a big deal at a time when women were judged mainly on how well they kept house. (And in the 50s, “not smoking around the furniture” was about as likely as not breathing around the furniture. Everyone smoked everywhere; asking someone not to smoke was considered the height of crass, prissy rudeness.)
I bet a lot of younger people don’t remember going to Grandma’s house and seeing every piece of furniture draped in plastic so it wouldn’t get dirty.
My aunt had everything covered in plastic. That is, everything we were allowed to touch. Her living room, however, was not covered in plastic. It was ROPED OFF. Yup, just like at a museum.
My grandparents had plastic on all their living room furniture. Hence, we never sat in that living room in the summer – too sticky! But wow, roped off! Holy smokes, now that is hard core protection!
Grandma didn’t have plastic (that I remember) but they had a formal living room that was closed off to the public (us grand kids). It was a special treat to get to open the pocket doors and peek in once a year!
On a similar note, Dad tells the story of Grandpa getting a new car (probably in the ’50’s) with Vinyl upholstery! Yup, you guessed it- this allowed grandpa to literally HOSE out the car after long family trips!
And I thank the people of the ’50s from the bottom of my heart for covering their furniture, so that retro dorks like me can find pristine pieces for our living rooms.
The problem is that nylon upholstery rots whether it’s being sat upon or not, so once it’s uncovered, that pristine piece ages fifty-plus years within five years’ time.
Time to get some plastic covers for it. 🙂
Oh yes, my grandma was too cheep to go for plastic, so she had sheets neatly tucked over every piece of furniture. Curse the person who wrinkled up her nice straight sheets – straighten that sheet! she yelled at you everytime you stood up. And god forbid you knock the doilies off the arm or off the back of the chair, where they were strategically placed to protect the sheet from your head – yes, two layers of protection – what did people put on their hair that was so caustic? Maybe this is why I remember spending so much time playing on the floor…
@ kristen55, you said, “…what did people put on their hair that was so caustic?”
Your grandmother may have grown up in the era of Macassar oil, so that might have been her reasoning for being so protective of her doilies aka antimacassars, “a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimacassar
During the sixties and seventies, she might have been trying to protect her furniture from a greasy Brylcreem stain, or she might have been trying to prevent a person someone with a head full of Dippity-Do hair gel from becoming permanently attached to her sofa.
Dana, unbelievable! You even found a wiki entry and they have a name – I’m amazed 🙂
You know, thinking back, I don’t even know what the sofa looked like under that sheet…
My gramma’s entire townhouse was wrapped in plastic with the parlor roped off. I can’t believe we sold that place for $12,000 in the 80s. It was in Park Slope, Brooklyn when Park Slope was scary. I wish we still had it!
Anyway, I love this whole thread, it’s like an episode of Mad Men.
@Dana – that was very cool info.
Asbestos causes health problems when it’s disturbed and free floating in the air. In tile, covered insulation, or tables pads – it doesn’t.
Just what I was thinking. This thing is probably totally safe. Ugly as sin, but safe.
Exactly, many of the huge clean-up projects that have gone on in public buildings/housing has actually made the asbestos problem worse by disturbing asbestos that was contained in well perserved insulation.
I had a geology professor assure our class that the white asbestos, what was mostly used for insulation, etc., is absolutly safe for you to be around (we had samples of it in our mineral specimen boxes for our labs). Although, I have never found any other source stating that the white kind is safe, just less dangerous than the blue and brown kinds so I’m not sure if he just told us that so we wouldn’t complain about the asbestos sample we had to use, or if it is a case of “if some of it’s bad it must all be bad” syndrome.
This offer! Is so! Exciting!!!
The cats don’t come with it? Darn, the cats were the only reason I was considering it.
Me too. I’d toss the deathly cover and keep the cats. They are probably more useful.
I truly never want to see this woman’s house. Exclamation point!
Why do people not want to throw trash away? Okay, maybe you don’t want asbestos floating around in a landfill, but you can give it away for free.
Well … maybe you can’t give *this* thing away for free; they couldn’t pay me to take it. Surely they don’t expect someone to fork over $40 for it, though.
But…but…it’s VINTAGE!
Asbestos in tile and insulation AND table pads is hazardous. There is a reason it is no longer used, as these products break down over time and release asbestos fibers into the air. Don’t take my word for it, though, buy it and see for yourself!
Yes – there’s a reason why we no longer use it… Because it is very dangerous to folks in industrial environments handling it, and the same for folks in the construction trades. In the home, unless you are rooting around in your insulation regularly or flipping that table pad daily, or licking edges of broken tiles… Your exposure is negligible.
There are hazards, but like so many other things years of hype have caused people to vastly overestimate them.
At least the pad wasn’t for a “dinning” table. Ever wonder if a “dinning room” is a room specifically for making loud noises?
come on, 40 bucks is a small price to pay if you need a housewarming gift for someone you really, truly, hate.
just sayin’….
Forgive my ignorance here, but how do we know for sure it’s asbestos? Is/was that the only fireproof material out there? Not being snarky–I really don’t know.
Click the link on the second picture… the thumbnail cuts off the fact that it says it’s asbestos.
I can’t believe he’s trying to stiff prospective buyers out of two cats. What a fucking cheek.
Who wants to bet that the table cover is haunted by the ghosts of the two dead parents?
Who wants to bet that the table cover is
haunted by the ghostspressed from the ashes of the two dead parents?There, fixed that for you.
Who needs therapy when you can get it all out on craigslist
I don’t think these pads were normally meant to be seen. Normally they were under the tablecloth. My grandmother still has hers on her dining room table and she always has a freshly ironed tablecloth on top of it. And, yes, the rest of the furniture in the house is covered in plastic.
See, plastic covers were what the rich people had. My mom had sheets and second-hand doilies. She did leave the plastic wrapping on the lamp shades, however, so there was that.
My mom loved thrift shops. She had more statues and china with little chinks out of it than anyone I ever knew. I always wondered if she saved up the $2 she spent every week or so on the junk, and then bought one nice thing for a bit more, if she would have been happier. Probably not. 8)
I totally want the cats. Or no deal, no matter how nostalgic this post made me.
Yep, the table pad goes over the table.
Then the table cloth goes over the table pad.
Then, if you REALLY cared about your home, you put a clear PLASTIC cover OVER the table cloth.
Oh, and there might be a thin liner between the table pad and table to keep it from sliding off.
I’m 29 and I know this. Because both my grandmas had them. They were good women.
And grandma had covers over all her furniture, too. When she died, we went into the house to clean it. I lifted up the flocked velor couch cover with the orange and brown floral print to discover….a bright BLUE flocked velor couch.
Grandma bought a couch she LOVED….and promptly covered it with a completely different color couch cover.
Yeah….
Oh, wait, forgot what I got on here to post.
“Was on my mother’s kitchen table for 50 years, table still looks perfect!”
“The pad has a few, slight burns on it from my daddy smoking for 30 years!”
So, it’s “perfect”? Except for 50 years of wear? Oh, and burn marks? Oh, and the insert “looks brand new”…which is different than the rest of it?
Sure, sounds “perfect” to me! Gimmee that asbestos filled gem!!!
Wow… Mom and Dad must have had that table pad for a really long time if that’s the ad for it… real family heirloom, that.