My dad loves Persian rugs. We have them all throughout our house. He went on this two year Persian rugs binge – I know, I know, some dads go on drinking binges, some go on gambling binges, but I swear, my dad’s Persian rugs binge was just as detrimental to his health.

It started out small, you know, like  5 X 8’s mostly. He figured out that because silk is the most expensive, it must be the best. I enjoyed rubbing the rugs one way and watching how the colors changed when I rubbed them the other way. He bought a couple this way.

Then he started to get bigger Persian rugs. 13 x 15 room fillers. All silk. Sure they were gorgeous, but the lack of restraint he demonstrated was pretty hard on all of us. And pretty soon we had traveled to Argentina for a rare antique rug. It was one of the many wool hand knotted rugs out there, but the carnations on it were silken. And because it had lain in the home of an Argentine king for 80 years and a path was tread on a section of it, I was able to step in and save my dad some money. It was still thousands of dollars.

Now he’s better, and although I can’t say I don’t enjoy the beautiful rugs that adorn our walls and floors, he’s still recovering from all the rugs debt he built over those two years.