# The Couch of Mercy



## mkirby (Feb 4, 2009)

I went on this overnight journey a few months ago that was like the most hilarious thing in the world...

I just HAVE to get out of town, right, because I've got the the itch. And it's been a shitty week. But I've got no money and no one who wants to go anywhere with me, (my friends have far too many roofs over their heads these days) so I don't want to go too far. 

Basically I just ended up taking the MAX into Gresham (I always end up stuck in Portland) and walking for a few hours. Gresham is kind of a shithole. I decided to camp out for the night because it was getting dark and I was tired and bored. I walked into a residential area, looking for a park, but found a school. A lot of the schools around this area have foresty areas around or near them, so I went around back, and sure enough there was a little patch of woods in the back. Hobo country. 

Unfortunately, it had been raining earlier that day, and everything in the little woods was totally slick with mud. I was considering doubling back and trying to crash a paper dumpster or something just for a dry place to sleep. That's when I saw it.

A couch. 

In the middle of the woods.

The couch, the ultimate symbol of young bums everywhere, was sitting there, right where I needed it, right before it got dark. And it was all old and worn in and nice. 

We should start making this happen for other people. Pulling couches out of dumpsters and off freecycle and hiding them in outdoor squat spots. It was the most satisfying thing in the world. 

New movement for the squatters: guerilla furnishing! Old mattresses inside flophouses are only the beginning. Let there be a la-z boy for every rubber tramp from here to the mississipi!


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## Samantha (Feb 4, 2009)

This made me laugh.

Amazing things like this always seem to happen to me when things start to look shitty.

Next time I see a dumpster-ed couch I'm going to drag it to a nice spot just for someone, such as yourself, to find. 

Thanks for sharing the story.


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## spud (Feb 4, 2009)

a friend of mine and her mom got evicted from their apartment the other day so she got ahold of me knowing ide have nothing better to do on a tuesday so a friend of mine and i went and helped them move well they were moving to a 2 bedroom place but im not sure that they realized it because when we got there and had almost everything unpacked she realized that she had 3 matresses and 2 bedrooms and nowhere to put the spare so i realized that we already had about 3 couches worth of cushens under the bridge we normaly stay under so we had her stop at the bridge and drop the matress out of the truck on the side of the road next to the bridge her mom asked us what we were going to do with it i said a friend of mine had a place near there and he could use a new mattress so we waited till dark and there werent a lot of cars passing over the bridge and droped it over the edge yea for wilderness furnishing i just hope squirls and raccoons dont like the mattress as much as we do


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## mkirby (Feb 5, 2009)

Yeah that's the one problem with furniture in the middle of the woods...animals tend to nest in it. And it gets kind of moldy and shit after a while. Still, it's awesome for lifting your spirits.


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