Where I come from, this would have brought out the torch-and-pitchfork mob:
Pittsburgh City Council today gave its unanimous, initial approval to legislation banning mattresses, box springs, sofas and upholstered chairs from city porches, primarily to prevent the celebratory burning of such items, as has happened repeatedly in Oakland.
Councilman Bruce Kraus showed council video of couches, ignited in the streets of Oakland, after the Steelers Super Bowl win and during a street festival. Last week council postponed the legislation for a week and asked for the Law Department's opinion, and though it hasn't been provided, he urged prompt action.
Of course, we tended not to burn our couches in celebration, not that there was all that much to celebrate. We were happy to just "set a spell," as the saying went, lounging on the front-porch couch and sipping a brew, enjoying the breeze and watching the moon rise behind the refrigerator and rusted-out car shell in the front yard.
Comments
OH, so you HAVE driven through MY neighborhood from time to time...right, Leo???
(the rusted car carcasses are usually in the ALLEYS, in case you were looking for them)
;)
"We were happy to just
Wait a minute, wait just a minute! Who are you and what have you done with the REAL Kevin Knuth?
Well, in my neighborhood we leave old tractor mowers in the front yard, stack firewood on the porch, and sleep on the couch ('til the dog eats the cushions, when mebbe we take to sleepin' in the car). Not tellin' ya what we're sippin', though.
Michael:
In MY area of the S/E side...that would be a step UP...LOL!
WVU gets all the credit for keeping the couch burning craze alive. there is even a website: http://www.playlikeyourcouchisonfire.com/
According to their historian:
The first couch burning occurred in the streets of Sunnyside after Bill McKenzie sent Touchdown Tony Dorsett and eat #@$% Pitt packing back to the 'Burgh in the epic 1975 Pitt game at OMF [Old Mountaineer Field].
As a profound 'Eer hater, I can gently point out that the Panthers knocked the Couch Burners out of the No. 1 BCS ranking in 2007 in the last game of the season at Pittsburgh but I don't recall that any real couches were burned that night.
I was wrong about couch burning at 12/1/07 WVU - Pitt football game won by Pitt 13 - 9. From Wiki:
The outcome of the game was met with stunned silence from Mountaineer fans while a small number of Pittsburgh fans were cheering in similar shock. At Pitt's campus in Pittsburgh, large numbers of students began forming in different locations of the Oakland neighborhood. In addition to the crowds a sofa chair was burned in front of the university's Cathedral of Learning, mocking the WVU couch burning tradition.
At the end of the regular season, the University of Pittsburgh's athletic site chose the upset of West Virginia as one of the most important games not only in the 100-year-old Backyard Brawl rivalry but in the football program's entire history.
It was also the first time the Pittsburgh Panthers defeated a no. 2 ranked opponent since their 24-20 win over Georgia in the 1982 Sugar Bowl.