The new Bemco bedding arrived today for the guest room.

I inherited an odd-sized lovely four-poster bed when we married. The mattress size is 51 x 75 inches (well, 50 7/8), not on the showroom floor. We measured the top of the box spring, and ordered the set custom-made at considerable expense, to us, anyway.

The poor fellows who delivered the set couldn't get the springs in for anything, even after removing the little plastic corners.

"Stand the mattress up in the room and go on, we'll handle it."

The size was only a smidgen off, so Lyman and I paired up and plonked our hineys on each of the corners to set the springs. It worked.

Then we placed the mattress. It is not a pillow-top. The crown of the mattress is 32 inches off the floor.

I guess we'll pretend to have a big house and have the carpenter build a step.

My gosh, that sure looks high.

The moral of the story is to always measure the springs at the bottom, especially if you're measuring bedding fifty years old. I'd like to say also measure the depth of the bedding, but we didn't have a lot of choices, so do the best with what you can. The old mattress had to go.