In praise of the old recliner chair

"A recliner is not a lightbulb or a roll of toilet paper. It's a permanent appendage like an arm or a leg," writes Fred Pfisterer for the News Leader.

"Over the years it has contoured to my shape, ageing like a fine wine, until it becomes unthinkable to replace it."

Mr Pfisterer is talking about his love for his tatty and worn recliner chair. It is need of repair, he explains – the motor only packed in five years ago – but he's wary of letting it go.

That's because it isn't just any old chair. The recliner chair is part of Mr Pfisterer's identity, part of his personal space.

"It's like old, comfortable shoes you won't toss out because they still fit perfectly, down to the bunion bulge," he writes.

Comparing it to a kingly throne or the cockpit of a spaceship, Mr Pfisterer reminisces how the recliner chair has witnessed the election of three US presidents, watched Gone With the Wind (at least ten times), and seated around 100 people of all shapes and sizes.

He even managed to find $5 in change stuffed down the back of it.

But now he knows it's on its last legs, and he still refuses to give in. A friend recommends some duct tape to paper over the cracks, but warns it won't last long before he has to buy a new one.

"Never," he tells his friend, and settles for the duct tape.

"The colour doesn't even have to match."

Mr Pfisterer is a former newspaper editor.