Dating myself, I remember back in the early 70s when making the rounds with my mom and sister Felicia we would visit all her Sicilian relatives on Prospect and up on Commonwealth, and they always had their living room furniture sets covered with that hard transparent plastic to protect it.
Never see those plastic furniture covers any more. While talking to Miles Schlicte we were trying to figure out when, if ever they took the covers off the furniture. Was it only for special occasions, or was it when there weren’t children around?
Did you know anyone or have any relatives that had the transparent furniture covers?
Not my mom-
Good Morning Gloucester 
That wasn’t even just a Gloucester Italian thing… My Italian friends from Staten Island, NY also had those same type of plastic covers…NEVER took them off
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Only on the lampshades.
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We never had them – we were just allowed to be six wild kid, but I do remember going to friends’ houses who had them. I always thought it was very odd.
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I had a great aunt who had them but, she only used them when she knew we kids were coming to visit.
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If they didn’t love us enough to remove the plastic covers for us, they didn’t love us. Sorry to break to ya’s
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I remember them well although we did not have them either. Actually, it makes sense. The fabrics were not repellant as they are now and many of the designs were fancy brocades and such and would have been ruined by one koolaid spill. It was also a time when folks kept furniture for many years. Hmmmmmm, I’m wondering if they still make them? Lol
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Oh yeah, I’ve got memories of the plastic furniture coverings. For us kids, it was all about the
TV, in any house. We’d lay on the red shag rug to watch our favorite shows, which my best friend dreamt about while in his foxhole in Vietnam. Dedicated to Richard Heck, United States Army.
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Back in the 60’s my dad was a mechanic at the local Chevy stealership. They would sell a new car and the owner would immediately have the plastic covers installed over the seats.
Fast forward a few years until the car got traded in on a newer model. My dad would remove the covers so the used car salesman could show off the perfect seats,
He figures most cars back then wound up being junked eventually…. with perfect seats.
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After returning to Gloucester in 1969 from a 4 year move to Venice, CA., I found plastic coverings on the furniture of friends houses, mostly Sicilian friends who lived in the Washington St. to Cut bridge area. I think there was a run on sales and appeal to this group around this time. Before the plastic, I remember my grandmother and her friends having a room in their homes that was just “theirs” and NOBODY could sit or go in it! Meanwhile, not to be out-done, some house wife’s back in California had to rake the shag carpets in their husbands sitting rooms before they got home from work, so as to cover any foot traffic from any of the family who had the guts to enter the sacred room, or there would be hell to pay along with beatings! As The Doors said, people are strange.
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We non-Italians used to call that “The Guinea Parlor”…No offense intended.
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Oh the hipsters will love this . best pic evah!
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Not just a Sicilian or Gloucester thing. I know of many German families who were religious about those ugly plastic furniture covers. How awful were those in the summertime?!
Each to his/her own. Just hope they’re not around anymore.
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During that time period if the aunts bought a new house or rehabed a house they would have a “show” living room or kitchen that wasn’t used except when company came over for a holiday. We were all boys and told our mother we didn’t want to live and museum; she had her good living room but no PLASTIC COVERS but plenty of Italian porcelain.
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My grandparents on Magnolia Ave had them installed in their new car. Back in the early 60s. I remember how my legs stuck to them in the summertime!
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We had the plastic over the couch, a plastic runner over the carpet and one over the table cloth.
I remember sitting and sticking to the couch in summer.
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MALS.. M.. A.. L.. S.. MALS.. MALS… M.. A.. L.. S … (Blinking Neon Signage) We do not have them any more because the stores do not sell them any more. I remember getting my first new furnature for my first apartment. The salesman said I did not need the plastic because of the new ScotchGuard. I was 21…He was wrong!
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My great grandmother had those plastic runners on the carpet through her tiny apartment – the ones with the little spikes on the bottom so it wouldn’t move. We kids had to stay on the little plastic track. It was like hamsters in a Habitrail. Except with a big photo of President Kennedy on the wall.
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where can you find these now??? we need to protect our sofa from puppy pee!!!
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