Another old Sunday cartoon up from the deep, this one from 1987. It is dated, of course, in more ways than one. I’ve been doing this so long that when I began there were no molded-plastic lawn chairs nor any of the folding canvas bag chairs. I was an early fan of the molded-plastic chair. It was sturdy and practical, if not beautiful. Now, however, they’ve reduced the plastic content to a dangerous degree; you have to sit motionless or risk collapsing backward. I have never been a fan of the bag chair. It’s not that comfortable to sit in, and folding it up and stuffing it back in that flimsy bag are hazardous to digits and mental peace. When this cartoon was drawn, the standard still was the aluminum folding chair with multi-colored nylon webbing. It was very comfortable, but as the cartoon suggests it had its limitations. The folding web chair could pose a hazard to fingers and hands as well, but at least the process was straightforward and predictable. Today I own two low-sitting beach chairs of this nature, and they’re my favorite portable furniture.
