Conversation Pits

[atfsgeoff]

For anyone who has never heard of them, they were a reasonably common architectural feature found in homes built from the 1950s through the 70s.

But along with houses, they apparently also found their way into cars: See this fantastic 1973 Ford Country Squire with seating for ten.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-Ford-Country-Squire/114520948437

A Groovy place to be, as only 1970s vinyl and carbon monoxide backdrafting through the power rear window can provide.

[CB]

I hope you really like the people you're stuck in the back with.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@cb I hope the person across from you doesn't like playing footsie.

[CB]

@whoistheleader Or, at the very least, you're both onboard.

The driver may not want to look in the rearview mirror.

[Chariotoflove]

@CB @WhoIsTheLeader You’re both not thinking of this the right way. On a long boring road trip, you were far enough back that with a blanket and the right posture, you could safely masturbate through most of Ohio and Pennsylvania without getting caught.

[CB]

@chariotoflove To the horror of the driver behind you you're making eye contact with.

[ranwhenparked]

@atfsgeoff I don't know, I always preferred those to the rear-facing ones

[aremmes]

I'd have preferred this so much more than the rear-facing seat in my aunt's Gran Torino.

As for the conversation pit, the living room in my previous house, and many others in that neighborhood, could have been considered one. It had only a ~7" drop, though. It sucked, as it made the living room feel detached from the rest of the already small house.

[EssExTee]

@atfsgeoff Anyone who tries to argue that conversation pits weren't expressly for swinging is lying through their teeth

[Chariotoflove]

@cb said in Conversation Pits:

@chariotoflove To the horror of the driver behind you you're making eye contact with.

So you have done this before!

[CB]

@chariotoflove said in Conversation Pits:

@cb said in Conversation Pits:

@chariotoflove To the horror of the driver behind you you're making eye contact with.

So you have done this before!

You don't become as wise as I am without a few adventures you can't admit to.

[BritsnSwedes was MINIGTI]

@atfsgeoff conversation pit fine, but why are there two turntables and two stools at the organ…with … built in TV?

[Shop-Teacher]

@atfsgeoff They kept doing this in the Panther platform wagons, until they went away.

[6MT_FTW]

@atfsgeoff Oh yeah, I grew up in a house with one of those (not my parent's house but the same floorplan). Utterly useless. The house was built in 1980 but older tracts in the area had that room 3-4 years prior. Most owners have filled them in and converted them to usable floor space, along with extending the living room into the outdoor garden planter area next to the pit. My niece and nephew loved that area and made it their playroom, but they're probably the only ones that have spent any time down there. Then there was the racoon that came in through the chimney...

I'm surprised that they haven't removed it, but it's just the two of them in 3,500 sq. ft., so it's not like they need the extra space. By the time they get around to selling the place conversation pits will probably be back in style...

[atfsgeoff]

@shop-teacher Yeah but the panthers weren't quite as bigly as the old 69-78 LTD platform. Still, I do love some steelside Panther waggos

[ranwhenparked]

@essextee I mean, you could probably say that about a lot of new inventions from that era - hot tubs, water beds, custom vans, etc

[spacekraken]

My last rental house (built in the late 60s) had the living room like that! Was kind of nice layout-wise.

[Mark Tucker]

Our house was built in '82 and has the living room sunken one step. It's kinda cool, makes for an extra-tall ceiling (and the ability to shop for taller Xmas trees!).

And I remember fighting over who got to sit in the "way back" of those wagons.

[phenotyp]

@atfsgeoff here to fully support elevation changes in landscapes.

[Tripper]

"what if we designed an area specifically for having sex, with a little table for coke"

-Conversation Pits

[davesaddiction]

@phenotyp I want to know how many people were seriously injured or died from drunken stumbles in these pits.

[phenotyp]

@davesaddiction Culling the herd.

[TexturedSoyProtein]

I got into the old Bob Newhart show recently. Big conversation pit energy in the living room of their apartment, which has far too many diagonal walls that make up a floor plan that doesn't at all jive with what an apartment in their supposed building depicted in interior shots could possibly be set up like.

[davesaddiction]

@texturedsoyprotein Conversation pit, or just wheelchair-hating split-level?

@Chariotoflove I assume you're very thankful this old trend has gone the way of the dodo...

[ranwhenparked]

@texturedsoyprotein Also Mary Tyler Moore, to a certain extent, even though this would be a really odd arrangement for a converted attic in a Victorian house.