There
is quite a story behind the two upholstered chairs I have in my Salon.
Ever since we started the refit on Thunderbird, I had been looking for
two chairs that would suit the Salon area. I had fashioned a little
game table with a chess board on top and I needed a couple of chairs to
use with it. Everything I looked at was always too large. Then I
finally came across a pattern to make fitted covers for plastic lawn
chairs. I tried a lawn chair and it was the right size so I purchased
the pattern and some fabric that would go well with the Salon Couch. I
would make those covers as soon as we finished the new floors. So, that
was settled.
Then low, and behold, one day I walked into the hangar and sitting in the kitchen were two small upholstered chairs. I asked "What are these?" and someone said "Oh, those are Scotties old chairs." Now there is a tradition in the storage hangar that if there is something you are disposing of, you "Donate it" to the galley and see if someone else wants it. If nobody wants it, it eventually gets used in the galley or thrown out. That's where a lot of the galley supplies came from. When I redid my Condo kitchen, I even donated a a section of cabinets and countertop. But, I digress.
These chairs just sitting there and up for grabs were a perfect size. There wasn't a break in the leather and the leather colour matched the accent colour in my Salon Couch. The woodwork was a little the worse for wear, all dark wood who's finish was cracked and peeling, but that could be dealt with, so I grabbed them. I took them on board and found that they fit nicely, so I got busy. Took the back and seats off and went to work on the wood. I sanded and sanded and sanded, right down to raw wood. Then I put a light stain on them to match my interior, then three coats of Spar varnish with sanding in between. After three weekends they looked great sitting in my Salon. I was so pleased, I chucked the lawn chairs and gave away the fabric that I was going to use to pad and cover them.
Then one day Bill Chatterly and I were sitting in the galley chatting and he asked me if I had heard what happened. I asked "What?" and he proceeded to tell me that "Bill Phillip (Better known as Scottie) had his chairs stolen right out of the galley." Again I said "What?" He said, "Yeah, he put his chairs from his back deck in the galley here, while he laid new carpets down on his deck and someone stole them on him." Needless to say my heart was up in my throat and my stomach did a flip flop. I felt sick.
I went back to my boat and stared at my beloved chairs and thought about what I had done, and what I had to do next. I don't lie and I don't steal, so I somehow had to fix this.
Maybe I could offer to buy them? If he wanted them back maybe he wouldn't like how I had stained them? Maybe he didn't really want them anymore? Maybe he had already bought replacements? I knew for sure I had to go and apologize to him for stealing his chairs and offer to make whatever amends he wanted.
So, I climbed the ladder up to his boat and asked permission to come aboard. I was welcomed aboard and as I gave him my description of what had happened, and started into my apology, the two Bills (Phillip and Chatterly) could no longer contain their laughter. What started out as snickers, turned into roars of laughter, before I realized I'D BEEN HAD.
It seems they knew I had refinished the chairs and had concocted this story to get a rise out of me. I wasn't the least bit embarrassed or angry at their prank. I was just happy that I got to keep my prized Salon chairs. And lets face it.
THEY GOT ME GOOD
