SOFA SO GOOD
VISI|VISI 126
Author and editor LERATO TSHABALALA reminisces about matching lounge suites and days when plastic was left on sofas.
LERATO TSHABALALA
SOFA SO GOOD

BOTH MY MOM AND I have been owners of brown sofas - albeit hers brought more wonderful memories than mine has (so far).

I grew up in a township called Zola, in Soweto. I was born in 1980 - when hair was as big as shoulder pads, and eyeshadow sparkled on eyelids during the day the way disco balls did on the ceilings of nightclubs at night. For my generation, Plastic Off The Sofa was not just a song by Beyoncé.

On hot Highveld summers, we would visit neighbours or family, and find our posteriors firmly glued to the sofa as we awkwardly tried to extricate our sweaty selves after sitting for way too long on plastic-covered seats. While the thought still tickles me, it was a trend my mother was determined she was not going to join her peers in continuing. So, when she could finally scrape together enough cents for her and my dad to buy a lounge suite from Bradlows, she made it clear to everyone that there would be no plastic on her damn sofas.

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