When a Duvet's No Longer a Duvet and Other Related Thoughts

One of the (few) good things about getting older is being able to recognise changes in society first hand. Prior to reaching a certain age you have to rely on the possibly inaccurate accounts of elders but from the dizzying heights of forty-five or so the landscape of the previous quarter century stretches over your own life, and the memories belong to you. This can enable you to assume an air of authority as you insert the occasional ‘well, I remember back in the eighties’ or ‘ah, yes, the long hot summer of ‘76’. It can also turn you into a bore, particularly if you start spouting that ‘things were better in my day’.
Each new year now of course, when records from thirty years ago are released, they describe events that are clearly remembered, and you wonder why the news and review programmes seem to view them as ancient history.
So it’s only comparatively recently I’ve come to realise that marked changes in human thought and behaviour can occur in a reasonably short period of time; certainly within a couple of decades. Take drinking and driving as an example. In the early 1980s there were still a large number of people I knew who would drive after having a couple of pints. Some of my acquaintances would get behind the wheel after drinking considerably more. At that time we were all just beginning to think it was not such a good idea but were a long way from today’s situation where the vast majority of people opt not to drink at all if intending to drive.
It’s the same with smoking. A quarter of a century ago it was the non-smoker who was something of an outcast. I remember school staff rooms that were filled with clouds of smoke every break and lunch time and if anyone had suggested banning smoking from the premises they would have been thought mad.
And so we come to duvets. When I was a very young child I remember being told that foreigners slept under a single covering which many of them hung out of the bedroom window to air in the morning. This was described in such a way as to sound a bit weird. Certainly nothing like as sensible as our cotton sheets (flannelette in winter), blankets, quilts and possibly coats. Mind you, the bedroom itself was a different animal. Possibly no fitted carpet or central heating and double glazing was years away.
And then, perhaps as the instalment of central heating became widespread, the duvet was suddenly no longer foreign. It became ours. Certainly by the time I left home to go to University, the Continental Quilt, as it was more commonly named then, was used by many people I knew.
My somewhat limited research informs that the Victorians also had quilts but these were more for decorative purposes and were by no means the only covering one would have on a bed. Throughout the early and mid part of the twentieth century it was sheets, blankets and possibly quilts or eiderdowns before the duvet invasion of the 1970s.
But now perhaps our sleeping habits are changing once more. Two or three years ago it was I began to discover that many of my friends were making their beds with the inclusion of an extra sheet: one which went between themselves and the duvet. The general feeling seems to be that it saves on having to wash the duvet cover quite as often as it no longer comes into direct contact with the body (let’s not discuss nightwear right now. A new topic entirely).
I adopted this same sleeping tactic a while ago. I was therefore surprised to discover recently that Next has not caught on to the mini-trend yet as they do not sell flat sheets (there’s another development of the late twentieth century: the fitted sheet). The assistant admitted she herself used a covering sheet and helpfully advised me to go somewhere they sold both if I wanted them to match.
so I end with a couple of questions. How widespread is this sheet on top malarkey? If it is, has the nature of the top covering changed once more? Has the duvet reverted to being a quilt? Does anyone care? In the overall scheme of things - not me!
Next instalment: Whatever happened to the Car Coat?