There’s this meme from a while ago that observes the fact that the 80’s and early 90’s weren’t as colourful and flashy as most media make them out to be. In fact almost everything ranging from clothing to furniture to advertising was a drab shade ranging between dark brown to orange.
Every once in a while you’d get a toy or a household appliance that would be a bright neon colour and it would be considered hi tech advanced fancy stuff (until it broke the next day).
Nowadays you’d have to look hard for dark brown/orange drab stuff. They make dark brown/orange stuff but it usually is made of a veneer of fancy wood and it’ll cost you an arm and a leg. (And then it breaks the very next day)
You always knew houses with smokers and without. Hit you walking in the door and put a sepia tint on reality - walls, popcorn ceiling, all kinds of shit. But what kids today will never know:
Plastic covered furniture. People covered their couches and easy chairs with plastic. it was wild.
Google it, people had fitted plastic covers made for all their furniture. I don't know if anyone ever took the covers off "oh the pope is coming over let's go all out" attitude but it was a distinct thing.
yeah that makes sense, my grandma only ever uses the good china for christmas and that's it. the only reason she'd whip it out twice in a year would indeed be if the pope came to visit her