Mention the word “Man Cave” and it conjures up all kinds of mental images, usually with a TV the size of Rhode Island and a stripper pole. But these are the fantasy. The reality is closer to the following:
A classic example of a real-life “Man Cave” is the family room in the basement where the man of the house has managed to hang one small and tattered sports pendant on the wall.
You can’t really see this pendant because his wife has designed it that way. The one piece of Man Caveness is cleverly covered by the sprigs of dead vegetation that festoon some bit of “Arts and Crafts” that she picked up at a down town festival two summers ago that you really didn’t want to go to in the first place and caused a big argument that… OK… The point is, it’s not really a Man Cave.
Oh, sure. You can invite the guys over, and you can watch the game, but if you have to push the Barbie accessories off the couch before you can sit, you’re in the family room. Case closed.
Another example is the “Sit on folding chairs in the garage and listen to the game on AM radio” Man Cave. A garage is a step up, I’ll give you that. Generally you don’t find any scented candles and wall stencils in a garage and the ambiance is, overall, more man-like. (In fact, words like “ambiance “should be avoided in Man Caves.)
JOE: “You know. I really like sitting out here in your garage and drinking beer and listening to those fun Braves on AM radio. There is a… Oh, I don’t know…A kind of ambiance out here that you just don’t find, you have to create.” Joe waves his hand. “I mean, all you need is a stencil over the door that says “Love” and this place would really be… Well, I guess the word would be cozy.”
TED/BILL/DOUG: Brief silence. Then they start up the belt sander.
My point is this. In the absence of Trump-like money, most of our Man Caves are Man Caves only in our own minds. A few extras, clocks, wall signs, would not hurt. But the point of a Man Cave is not all about the décor. It’s just a place where you can be a man. And if you have to push the coloring books off the sofa, and occasionally step on a really sharp little army man, and fix a pony tail while watching the game, you are a man. And you are in your Cave.
