Bedding down at the cabin
Most cabins have multiple beds, often unmatched.
Your Scribe has just activated Bed No. 3, and I am happy to report I acquired it at considerable savings.
Bed No. 1 is the lower bunk of a set brought back from World War II by my father.
Some soldiers returned with medals, or bayonets, or perhaps even girlie pictures from liberated Paris.
My father returned with a set of bunk beds, stamped by a rugged "U.S." imprimatur on the base of each.
I shouldn't be taking this lightly.
Medals that were brought back by servicemen are likely lost, or at least tucked away where they don't have a practical use.
It's certain that the girlie pictures were destroyed during the upright '50s.
I do have a bed.
Note the singular.
Though they stand upright as two, the structure is so weak and brittle that only the bottom bed can be utilized.
But I slept on the bottom bunk as an energetic boy, and now turn to it as a mellowing, middle-aged Scribe.
Bed No. 2 comes from L.L. Bean.
To the urban eye just entering Cabin Country, the unit is a bright red chair.
When the sun sets, the foldout seat can be pulled out into a bed that covers the floor.
I did not realize it was a "floor unit."
I thought it rolled out to stand several feet above the floor, but it's clear I didn't investigate the product very closely.
The good news is that I arrived in Freeport (last summer) expecting to pay $399, and found that this model was reduced by 30 percent.
It is comfortable, and no one yet has been attacked by crawling ants or spiders.
Bed No. 3 has just made its debut.
It is a blowup unit from L.L. Bean, resembling an air mattress with fur.
It is a popular addition to night-time furnishings, because it is easy to use and much cheaper than options I had considered.
One inflates it by using a simple pump that draws power from the car, plugging into the aperture that looks like a cigarette lighter.
(Readers of this column know that my cabin does not have electricity.)
The cost was $69.
This is much less than furniture I considered for months: a daybed from L.L. Bean for $700 and a futon for B.J.s for $500 ($400 if you went through the hassle of joining the club).
So now the cabin has four beds, three of which are functional.
My favorite is the good-old lower bunk.
I wonder what my once-young (and now deceased) father would think if he knew a bunk bed from his Army days was still serving in the night - in the woods of Maine.
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