The Folding Bed

This bed was my grandmother's. My grandfather had a furniture store and because of that I am very fortunate to have some beautiful family pieces. When I was growing up people would come over and comment on the "Murphy" bed and mother would say, "my mother always called it a folding bed." I remember being a bit embarrassed--after all, what did it matter? On down the line several antique dealers told us that it was indeed a "folding" bed, that the Murphy bed came along later to take up less space and usually folded in half rather that all the way down.

You can see the ornate iron legs hanging at the top. There's a small latch that you undo and then just pull the bed down so that the mirror is facing the floor and the iron legs drop down. It's pretty cool! As children Mother and Uncle Billy used to crawl under it and would see their shadowy reflections upon which one them of would scream of the carved face at the top, "His mouth is opening, his mouth is opening!" Then they would roll out from under it as fast as they could!

Aunt Sallie had it for a long time and whenever I visited I got to sleep in it. She had pink polished cotton sheets and a satin comforter for me to use. Yes, I did feel like a princess!

And now that I'm older I open my mouth and my mother comes out. Someone calls it a Murphy bed and I say, "well, my mother always called it a folding bed."