When you are writing, it kind of eats up your brain, so you get 25% processing power for everything else. Quotes from this week for your laughing pressure.
Me: I need lamps.
Gordon: Yes?
Me: Lamps! For pantry.
Gordon: …
Me: It’s not working.
Gordon: Do you mean fluorescent bulbs?
Me: Yes! The light is barely working in there because the bulbs are burned out.
#
Gordon: This fucking sucks. No. ::puts hand over face:: No, I can’t.
Me: We will put it back once we fix it.
Gordon: I know and it will be better. I don’t have to like it.
::deletes 3,000 words:::
#
Me: Look, no oil.
C, Kid 1’s boyfriend: Nod.
Gordon, coming to the table.
Me: No oil.
Gordon, who is used to random things said at him by now: Nod.
Kid 1 comes to the table.
Me: The new Le Creuset pan is amazing. I made three omelets without oil and they all slid off the pan beautifully.
Kid 1: That’s nice, Mom.
#
Gordon: Did you know that those sunken living rooms in 70’s that everyone is trying to redo now? They were called conversation pits.
Me: What? Do they like throw you into the pit and only one person comes out?
Gordon: Probably. Also, what was the prize for winning? Groovy fondue?
Okay those of you who were alive in the 70’s, what was up with conversation pits? Like how was this tripping hazard and dirt collecting area sold as the coolest design element ever?
My grandma had a sunken living room in the house they built in 1960. At 75ish, she fell and broke her leg on the stair. ????♀️
Sorry, that wasn’t clear. They lived in there from 1960-2010, but she broke it when she was 75, or so. I do not recommend them.
No, you explained it just fine. I understood without the clarifications.
My first thought of the conversation pit is I think its cute that they think I would use the stairs like a civilized person instead of just stepping on the couch like the lazy savage that I am. Also within a day 99% of the pillows would live on the floor. It would become the pillow pit.
I do think it does look neat even if it is impractical.
Oh – that would be cool — convert the 70’s conversation pits into ball pits, like in a children’s play area. Trays of drinks and snacks could just ride on top of the balls as people waded and swam around to other folks.
Yes….
I looked for photos of this, but could not find any. Many other things have been turned into ball pits though.
Mix in alcohol for the adults and it could be an awesome time in the ball pit
Ditto!
Weren’t they the prelude to a key party? ????♀️????
Oh Snap!! So glad I had not taken a drink from my water bottle first!!
That’s a good one – something I had forgotten about hearing my parents whisper solemnly, “they’re one of those ‘key people'”
Years later learning what that meant, boy put a whole new light on some of my classmates parents!!
O_O
Quoting Firesign Theatre (also from the 70s): Nah, only half a key. I split it with the sound effects guy.
Different key…
Theater in the ’70’s was a very interesting place, indeed!
Also from Firesign Theatre:
–I’ve forgotten the key.
–That’s okay. I’ve got a lid in the car.
????????????????????
Good one!!
Google not helping. I’m imagining swinging parties or cannabis. What is ‘key’ in thus context?
@Jo You’re close with both the swinging parties and the cannabis. Everyone dropped their house key in a bowl then went home with whoever pulled it out. There was lots of booze and grass involved.
I hadn’t a clue either. Thanks for the explanation Sandra.
Check out the Ang Lee movie “The Ice Storm” for a key party. That was my introduction to the term.
With all those “conveniently cushioned spaces” in that conversation pit pictured, I think just a general orgy would work quite well. LOLOL
You ever see the participaction on swinging?
Just as funny now as it was then.
https://youtu.be/ayVYxJppXg0
This will never get old for me, just like your books
Also, if your wondering which I’m sure you not, these temps are in Celsius.
Just saying
(Did you see the same news crew trying out Christmas recipes? Even funnier!! (Just the title – ‘Holiday artichoke dip goes terribly wrong on-air’ makes me howl)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQAauVu2sTg
Tell you what, those Calgarians!)
I love you. This was hilarious. I laughed so hard it hurt. I’m also confused cause I’m from Alberta how did I miss this.
Wow, I had to look that up. I guess I have led a really sheltered life.
I wonder if the conversation pits were used for bean bags back in the 70s? My parents didn’t have a conversation pit. All the living rooms I wandered around in during the 70s were the normal, everyday living space. No pits around. 🙂
Thank you for the other conversations in the post. I needed a good laugh when my brain is at 25% capacity.
You saw them on celebrity talk show sets or in celebrity based movies where everyone had expensive parties – a la Hugh Hefner themes-more a 60’s thing rather than the 70’s. Because they were ridiculously impractical design moved on to the sectional sofas where you could get the grouped setting without the hole in the floor.
I lived through the 70s and never saw one of those in real life. Plenty of green shag carpet tho. Sadly, my current home has an addition that includes a living room that’s one cinder block (9”/23 cm) lower than the original portion of the house. Probably dates to the 70s—perhaps a “poor man’s” attempt at a sunken living room. It’s ridiculous and I despair of it.
Please include something like this in one of your stories so we can all shake our heads in confuzzlement. ???? ????
If it’s like the house I grew up in, we enclosed the carport. So the Florida (aka TV) room was one step down from the rest of the house. It did have orange shag carpet. I had to rake it every week as part of my household chores.
Rake it?!? Like with an actual rake?! I love this so much. Please give me more details!????
Yep. You’d vacuum then go over the carpet with a big plastic rake, like a leaf rake, to fluff it and make the fibers stand up. And then rake again between vacuums to fluff high traffic areas. Apparently you can still buy shag rakes on Amazon and at Walmart. Though the modern ones look more like carders or cat brushes than rakes. I didn’t know shag was still a thing.
Or you can just use a rake… a leaf rake. Not the solid rakes
We had to rake BEFORE vacuuming to find things like jacks or coins that were hiding in the carpet. Each room had a different color of shag carpet. Gold, green, blue and red. Oh my!
I recall pulling up all the multi-hued shag in my mother in law’s house. Gold, blue, green, pink….
Yes! I don’t remember shag fondly for that reason!
I’ve just spat tea EVERYWHERE ????????????????
So a “shag” in British slang means, well, “getting laid”. So my mind immediately thought “you need new toys” ????????????????
I think its because of building code. My grandparents house was built in the late 1800s, and when they had an addition built in the 70s, the required height of the foundation wall from ground to floor was different than the rest of the house. (I’m sure there was no building code when it was first built). So the big kitchen she added was 6 inches higher than the rest of the house. I’m sure whoever buys their house when they pass (hopefully not for many more years) will wonder why there is a step up into the kitchen 🙂
I will never think of the Otrokar fire pits the same way again!
My first reaction is why would you want your head level with the surrounding floor? It would be giving my children perfect opportunity to jump on us without much warning. . . compared to climbing the couch and sitting on our shoulders/head lol.
Plus I already fall down our stairs on a regular basis, no need to add more.
I “think” the idea of the conversation pit was akin to an amphitheater where the audience can all see/hear whats going on with the conversation… the folks IN the pit can take part, but folks that stand AROUND the pit can too… absolute genius for the “party at my place” crowd… most of which were either younger or D.I.N.Ks (Double Income No Kids)… For the rest of us… yeah…. totally impractical…
Yep. That was the “idea” — those in the pit were the “in crowd” that everyone walked around and could watch while still conversing with others — at least in my experiences. We didn’t have one — had red, green, and yellow shag carpet (one color in each bedroom and green in the smallest bedroom and down the hall).
Considering the 2 families I knew that had the Pit — yeah, in hind sight, Key Parties probably explain their choice conversation seating. O_o
And boy, do I wish I hadn’t figured that out as an adult.
I was a 70’s child/80’s teenager – the house I grew up in was an old farm house that the town grew around it. So no conversation pit.
However, there was the very small step down in the hallway from the front of the house (living room, parent’s bedroom and my grandmother’s bedroom) into the back half of the house – added on sometime before my parents bought it – which had the kitchen, bathroom & utility room.
That step for everyone was a death-trap waiting to happen at one point or another.
Me – rushing through the house to exit the backdoor for some child-must-do-now reasoning. Hallway/forget step down is there/faceplant on floor
Dad – there’s a step there…
Me – thanks Dad
Few years later…..
Dad: (having had a few or more beers with friends on our patio headed bed): trips going up said step = faceplant into what is now my bedroom door.
Me: Hey Dad, there’s a step there
Dad: …$#@#$#@, %#$@$
Me: *snickers behind pillow* whispers…payback!
My husband is a GC. He’s taken out more of these sunken living rooms than you can imagine. Also the drop down sunshine ceilings. What was up with that? Anyone over 6ft was always ducking in the kitchen… I blame the drugs in the 70’s…
How do you take out a sunken pit? Lots and lots and lots of concrete?
I mean, you’d just fill it in with normal floor framing so it was level with the rest of the floor.
Didn’t the TV show “Matt Houston” have a conversation pit in Houston’s house?
The original Highlander movie had one in Connor MacLeod’s place and it was in a room by itself surrounded by weapon stands. I thought it was cool.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b8/dd/38/b8dd3844769b76e108f1b3fe141f4a20.jpg. yeah, I still think it is cool.
Hum….Ilona, blaming all the weirdness on the writing stuff…
Me, looking at other author behavior…. Don’t look so weird to me.
May I ask if you both were totally « normal » before all of this ?? ????
Multi level homes. If you read design magazines from 70s you will see that the idea of a step up or a step down was tres chic. A conversation pit was streamlined and modern. Look! No sofa! Just pillows on the steps. Hmmm, kind of like half the outdoor deck designs I see now. The pit also tipped its hat to the idea of the swinging seventies where you and twenty of your friends could get cozy. There had to be shag carpet in there too.
I once house/cat sat over a holiday weekend at a house that was multi level and had a pit. Cats loved it. I thought it was a death trap.
This make me think of the Uber popular stair gathering point in business buildings today- looks pretty but ridiculous as far as functionality
I am an House Hunters fiend. I love that show to see how ridiculous the buyers are (and to torture myself for the markets in other cities). I do not understand the absolute HATRED people have for multi-level (split level and tri-level) homes that people have. I grew up in what I know realize was a split-level condo and I loved the lay out. We never used our front door for our entrance/exit so coming in through the garage felt like a two level. There was nice separation of the two living spaces (family room in the basement and living room on the upstairs next to the kitchen). The house WAS built in the 70s.
And I thought my friends were cool for having a “teen” phone. Never heard of a conversation pit. It does look kinda cool, but yeah, I can see myself carrying a big basket of laundry or groceries or something and miscalculating where the pit is and falling in. Isn’t that what happens with pools? This is the indoor, furniture version of a pool. Just make sure you have a lot of pillows to cushion your fall.
Just think of how much dogs would love that playing in that thing.
Bwah ha ha. Thank you, Ilona Andrews, for the hilarious post.
Perhaps I should explain. Mother has senile dementia. At 77 years young, she doesn’t remember any of our names nor proper names of other things. So she will say lamps for example and then can not tell us any specifics. I finally narrowed down last month to the sealed safety light unit in the foyer ceiling needed to be replaced because after 20 years it burned out. Sigh That requires an electrician, it’s not a DIY replace bulb job.
Thank you for the laugh. We don’t allow Mother in kitchen anymore after multiple fire department visits. Thank goodness for those Amazon.com auto out range top fire suppression units. Still are replacing microwaves every 3 to 6 months after she microwaves teaspoons in her coffee cup. No she is not supposed to be microwaving anything. Sigh. Oh the nonstick pan surfaces, she said we’re dirty and basically removed the non stick surface. Sigh. ????????. So count your blessings and enjoy life.
Strange, I microwave my tea tankard (.7l) with the spoon in.
Maybe 2-3 times a day, for years, never had to replace a single microwave.
HMMM. AS I recall it was the 70’s version of the Romans lounging around on couches eating, drinking & smoking weed. Don’t remember anybody getting OUT of one now that you mention it.
Yes, this is interesting. I was thinking of Puebloan kivas. The idea of descending down into the earth for communication and spiritual rites is really fascinating and it would not shock me if 60’s and 70’s architects were doing a little cultural borrowing (I assume not full-on appropriation, because there are only similarities, not specific, analogous features).
I can see how someone tripping on hallucinogens might find a conversation pit very womb-like and safe? I’ve never done anything like that (I’m an anxious type), but I have been with people on mushrooms and they would have loved a conversation pit.
Only useful thing I could think of was a play area for kids. No toys allowed out of the area and great climbing practice then throw in one of the mini trampolines and get flying kids. OMG think of the opportunities for havoc.
I walked downstairs one day and found the neighborhood kids jumping off the pool table into a brand new recliner totally destroying the seat springs. Giggle, so many stories with kids.
My grandkids played hide-and-go seek in the washing machine. One new washing machine later…… My daughter was P.O.ed , but I was rolling with laughter.
We never had the pit in any house we were in but we were on the poor side. However I remember plaid and floral sofas. Plus don’t forget the shag carpeting. ???????????? my Mom was pretty particular on colors and hated the orange and the Avocado green that was popular then so We didn’t have that in our homes.
Conversation pits were awesome for group make out sessions aka teen parties. Talking went on intermittently, I suppose. ????
And everyone could get to the snacks, when we came up for air.
They were horrible and hideously uncomfortable! Usually the seating was just wood benches covered with shag carpet. The same shag carpet on the floor just came up and over the benches. I hated them even then.
I had no idea sunken living rooms were ever a thing. How ugly and how unsafe. Also learned what a key party was, this blog is always so educational and entertaining.
Orgies and stuff
Nobody I knew had a conversation pit in their house. More like some old sofas in the basements that were ok for kids to ruin,
However, no tv, no plugins so you’re either talking or reading or other stuff nudge wink 😉
3000 words deleted. Ouch I feel for you.
When I have a brain burp and can’t remember the word for something – my husband supplies the word and I reply: Exactly. You know what I mean jelly bean ????
I want a couch pit so bad.
I remember that my ballet teacher had a sunken pit in front of her fireplace in their living room. I was only there a couple of times, but it was the epitome of “cool” to a 14-15 year-old in the 70’s.
I actually never figured the conversation pit out. The ones I saw were always way too big to actually talk to anybody on the other side of them. I remember somebody I knew speculating that they might be useful for orgies. I was even less interested in trying that idea out.
After college, a friend bought their first home-an unupdated 70s era townhouse in Houston. The wet bar was odd but ok. The Roman bath with 3 mirrored walls was just crazy! We made lots of Roman orgy jokes.
I was not alive in the 70s. I was barely alive in the 80s. I was somewhat alive in the 90s, but I was so sleep deprived in the aughts that I’m not sure it counted. The 10s killed me and the 20s have sucked the marrow from my bones.
The point is, I would be so happy to fight in the conversation pit for some groovy fondue. I volunteer as tribute for this gladiatorial combat and melty cheese.
It looks very ancient Roman. Imagine: my own impluvium. How cool would that be?
The “conversation pit” looks like a dog designed it. Seriously, my two dogs and one cat would go berserk and be in love with that. I can see them running full force to land on the couch and curling up for a while, then getting the zoomies and hopping in and out of there. Humans, not so much. So which ’70’s designer got their animals involved in the design process?
We have a corner where we use two perpendicularly arranged armchair/sofas to create a mostly-contained squareish space we filled with stuffed animals and Squishmallows. It’s like a big box. Just dive in! It’s the most popular spot in the house. Very cosy. I find sleeping family members in there frequently. We call it the “fuzzy pit” or “stuffy pit”. All the fun of an actual pit without the tripping/fallling hazard!
No conversation pit like that but our den was lower than the rest of the house and covered in terrazzo. We would run down the bedroom hallway and used the drop to slide across the den floor straight into the gun cabinet. Mom was just happy we were busy and not killing each other or breaking things. It was supposed to be cool, it was just a trip hazard.
I wasn’t very old then but I will tell you….. they were….
Orgy spaces without using a small bedroom. Lots of room.
Groovy 70’s thing
(Childhood friend- his mom was a free loving hippie)
Place: San Francisco California (or thereabouts)
My sister called them porn pits. She once told me that only drug dealers had them.
Makes me want to call her up and ask how she figured that out when we were kids.
I had forgotten them until this blog post.
My high school had one of these pits in the common area back in the day… probably still does for all I know. We students spent a lot of time there. Not that it was comfortable- far from it. But it was ‘cool’ to lounge around with all your friends.
???????? Yes there are things from the 70s that should STAY in the ‘70s. I remember looking at houses with my parents that had sunken bathtubs in the main bedroom. ???? Being drunk and trying to navigate that would have been rather, Uhm, entertaining. As for the cool factor of the conversation pit, just watch some movies from the era. Oh, and Austin Powers.
Never saw one in anyone’s house, but they were probably standard issue at the Playboy Club mansions (hello Chicago, the original one) and for the houses of the film stars out in Hollywood, CA.
Supposedly tres chic…
as long as you had housekeeping staff…????????????
How can you not see that these pits were and are cool? Imagin going down, sinking into the plush, reading … you can literally hide in plain sight and it’s cosy and airy and various other things …… Of course – they only work in huge rooms … 😉 In small rooms: not so much to horrible …….
I’m from the west coast – I suspect split levels were a response to ranch houses on slabs from the 50s and 60s. That, or a tamer version of hot tubs and peacock feathers … seriously, after the 60s (protests, be-ins, rtc.) there was a big push for group activities and “rapping” in the early-mid 70s …
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/465180/what-did-rap-mean-in-1970
And this sounds as good an explanation as any …
https://www.hunker.com/13724000/history-of-conversation-pits
I love the idea of a pit fight, with fondue for the winner!
There were a lot of drugs in the 70s, just saying.
I remember looking at a older house in the late 80s, sunken living room and sunken TUB!! I had a new baby at the time and just noped away from that tub, lol.
I was young in the 70’s and our home had a trip hazard, it was mainly used by the cat when he stole a ball of yarn from mom’s basket and turned it into yarn art limbo. When this happened we called it thunderstorm because that’s what it sounded like when we tripped over the yarn art and yelled in anger and anguish the pit would echo the sound. Otherwise it was the pretty room we looked at and didn’t enter it’s where the nice furniture was put for adults to adult.
I only knew 1 person with a conversation pit (70s teenager). Her father was the head of anesthesiology at the hospital. As I recall it was off to the side through an archway? They also had a rec room.
In the 70s, I finished college, got a job, and stayed with my parents in their 1951 ranch with level floors. Aside from the (cavernous, it was a big house for the time,) basement, we had 3 steps down to the “Florida room”. That was trip hazard enough. Visiting college friends around the Detroit area, some in wealthier areas and newer homes, I still never saw an actual conversation pit. Possibly it was a regional thing.
I only remember it being a “grown-ups only” area.
The Beatles !
Their movie HELP, had separate entry doors to their shared house had a sunken bed.
When I saw your picture I smiled fondly recalling the Beatles movie with the best music!
Thank you!
In the 70’s there were no cell phones and it was rude to have a TV on during any social events so we sat around looking fabulous and TALKED!! And sometimes drank a cocktail. I never saw anyone trip into a conversation pit. I am sure that it happened but…. Of course it was also the era of carpet in the bathroom so maybe we were too stoned from the 60’s to think 70’s home design through.
In the 90s I visited friends who lived in a huge Victorian house that had been a rental place for 25+ years. The beige shag carpet was so filthy I imagined entire civilizations carrying on beneath our feet. Think Horton Hears a Who, but nasty! I still get the shudders remembering it.
I first read GRAVY fondue-there is an idea!! Mmmm, steak, sausage to dunk!!
Our cabin in Big Bear had one. It seemed super cool and different at first and it was useful once when the heat wasn’t working and it was 30 degrees outside. We had brought another family and we all huddled together in the pit with the kids on the inside to sleep that night. After the heater was fixed though, we had to keep pillows in it because the littles kept falling into it. Good times, lol.
I think they just make a mistake by putting couches. Just throw beds, big cushions and two or three stands for entertainment holding, some low light for reading and you have a proper pit.
Lol. I saw the conversation pit and instantly thought of Austin Powers. Maybe one of the movies had one.
I grew up in a beautiful probably very haunted Victorian farm house situated between a gothic cemetery and the police station… surrounded by corn fields. No pits, except for the pool my dad let nature have. (Yeah so when poltergeist came out I was 7 and never slept well again until my 30s)
Very entertaining to read comments …I’m a month into a new job that requires a lot of brain. In a lab environment with lots of compliance rules. My bandwidth at end of day is about enough to pet the cats and watch Sabrina on Netflix. ???? I couldn’t think of the words Buffalo sauce. They became “fluffaluff foof” or something…” “just eat it family!” It’s a great job though.
????