Good Old Desk

Anyone recognize that as a title of a song? Yeah, probably not. If you do, then you remember Harry Nilsson. He was a singer/ songwriter from the 60s and early 70s. He was best known as a life loving, heavy drinking, singer of the the theme song from Midnight Cowboy, “Everybody’s Talkin’ at Me”. What I find most amazing about him is that he could write a song about a desk! Not about love. Not about heartbreak. About a desk!

Well, if he can write a song about a desk, I can write a blogpost about desks. I love desks! Big, small, wood, metal or plastic. I can remember getting a desk for Christmas when I was a child. I’ve been trying to remember what it looked like, but I can’t. But I do know that it was one of my favorite gifts ever. I think my parents knew I like to write.

I saw, on Facebook, pictures of the destruction of my junior high building. Now that place had the desks! Very old fashioned. Your desk seat was attached to the desk behind it. The desk itself had a slanted wood top that lifted up. On the flat top was a groove for a pen and an actual hole for an inkwell. And no, I am not old enough to have ever used an inkwell! In high school we graduated to stand alone desks, whose surface was the shape of an apostrophe. Under the seat there was a basket to hold your books. Very efficient, but lacking in character.

I’ve owned a roll top desk for about thirty five years. It was a gift from an ex-wife. It was purchased at the famous Kern’s Furniture Store in Slatedale. It remains one of my favorite possessions. Wood, with brass fittings. Just the right amount of cubby holes. A mantle like top that holds lots of good stuff. A roll that works right every single time. Of course, now, I leave it open all the time. I know that key must be here somewhere!

There is my little essay on desks I have known and loved. I hope you enjoyed it and that it brought back good memories for you. I’d like to hear if any of you have any desks in your past, or present, that were special to you.

Let me close with the first line from Harry Nilsson’s song, “Good Old Desk”: “My old desk, does an arabesque, in the morning when I first arrive.” Now that was a desk!