Mine was a hand-me-down Waterworks model direct from Uncle Ron’s bachelor storage space. His second wife disallowed his frequent visits to his old stuff, so he decided to give his stuff to people he knew. I put the pedestal together in the second level bedroom of my first apartment. Dad checked the joists to make sure the floor wouldn’t collapse.

I hooked one end of the hose to the mattress and run it down the stairs to the kitchen sink where I connected the leaky faucet adapter. The water was on. Suddenly I heard what sounded like a golf course at dawn. I ventured up the stairs to witness what looked like a slip-n-slide. My deluxe waterbed had tens of holes shooting water everywhere including my deep-shag carpet.

One new mattress later, I was in business. It took a little getting used to and I had to relearn some things (only waterbed owners what know what I mean) but I learn to love my wave less waterbed. It did cost a fortune to heat and was no good during a long-term power outage, but otherwise a useful place to slumber. As with the 5-speed stick-shift in my Sunbird, the novelty wore off after a couple of moves and I’ve gone back to the spring.