I grew up in a house with a carpeted living room. My mother, bless her heart, was a complete zealot when it came to protecting the creamy white pile that resided in the room where the family spent most of their time. There were little collapsing dog gates that guarded the two doorways to the living room, and no food or drink was allowed in there. You can put the idea of wearing shoes in this pristine shrine to the god of plush pile right out of your head, unless you wanted to lose it of course!
My mother's behavior certainly left an indelible stain on the carpeting of my mentality toward carpet preservation. In fact, after seeing the lengths my mother went to protect her precious creamy carpet, I have avoided carpeting in my home altogether, until the day I met Dan the SmartStrand? Silk Carpet Man at a home expo I recently attended.
As I walked through the expo center, I happened upon a table with two positively enormous wine glasses that were half-filled with red wine. Floating in each of these glasses was a swatch of creamy white carpeting, pile side down. I recoiled in horror at the site. My mother's carpet preservation indoctrination hitting me full force, I had to stop and gaze in stark horror.
Then, noticing that my interest had been piqued, Dan The SmartStrand? Silk Carpet Man went into action. He started to tell me about the unique qualities of the carpeting he was demonstrating, SmartStrand Silk as he called it, and proceeded to remove one swatch of carpeting from the wine and began trying to clean off the wine with only a bit of water. I was not surprised when he failed miserably.
Then he removed the swatch floating in the second glass of wine and did the same thing. As the water flowed over the wine-stained carpeting, it took on a pinkish purple hue, leaving only the rich creamy color of the carpeting underneath. I was shocked. I literally couldn't believe it. I demanded that Dan The SmartStrand Silk Carpet Man do it again! He did, with equally impressive results.
I've got to say, I'm seriously considering carpeting for my home the next time I replace my floors. I always loved the soft, plush feel of the carpeting as I lay on the floor with a book when I was a kid, but I could never get past the notions about protecting it that my mother had drummed into me all those years.
Could it be that my children could enjoy the comfort of curling up on a softly carpeted floor to watch television, or to read a book without all the hassle of dog-gates, no-shoe rules, and forbidden comestibles?! It certainly looked that way.
It may seem like a small thing to others who didn't have a shrine to carpet preservation in their home as a child, nor a guardian of that shrine as fierce as my mother, but to me, the man was a hero wizard sent to liberate me from the prison of cold unyielding wood floors. Thank you, Dan The SmartStrand Silk Carpet Man! You probably don't realize it but, in an admittedly small way, you changed my life.
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3 mins
