When Susan and I got married in 1982, our first purchase was a California king waterbed.

We were not hippies but we liked to sleep on a comfortable mattress and waterbeds were remarkably inexpensive.

For almost 40 years, we slept on that waterbed.

We replaced the mattress twice and the heater twice. And we replaced the liner at least twice. The bed held up remarkably well in two major moves in that time period.

But the time had come to get something new.

First, we had to get rid of that huge waterbed.

It actually was in very good shape. The wood frame had a couple of nicks but it was still very solid.

I called a few non-profits to donate the bed and they all said the same thing – “We don’t take waterbeds.”

That was understandable. They are hard to move and require more maintenance than a normal bed.

So, I did an Internet search to see what it would cost to pay someone to pick it up. People wanted hundreds of dollars.

We put an ad for the waterbed for sale on the Internet. Everyone kept telling me that it would sell quickly. We were not quite sure how to price it so we decided on $200.

In the first day, we had six messages. A man in Owasso counted at $125, we countered at $175 and then we agreed on $150.

We spent two hours on a Sunday draining the mattress. This young man showed up and paid us cash. He took the bed apart and even carried it out to his truck.

It was a good transaction for him and for us.

That meant we had to buy another bed.

We decided to spend a little to get a nice bed that would take us into our golden years. We did a little research online and then we headed to one of the biggest furniture stores in town.

Everybody seems to sell mattresses and box springs. There are countless TV ads and everybody has their stuff on sale.

We got to this store where we have purchased some furniture in the past. We wanted a California king-sized mattress with a base that lets you raise your feet or your head or both.

The salesman was very smart and personable. He tried to steer us to the high-end beds but we finally found a set in middle price range.

Did this come in a California king, I asked. California kings are four inches longer than a regular king-sized mattress.

Yes, but no mattress store in Tulsa has this in a California king. We can order it and it might get here in six weeks, the salesman said.

How much would a normal king-size mattress set and base cost?

He said about $7,000.

I thought, ouch!

But he did said he would forego the $100 delivery and setup fee.

I told him we had just started shopping and we might check back.

We went down the street to Mattress Firm. About a month ago, we bought a modest queen-size mattress for our guest bedroom for about $1,000 at Mattress Firm. It was great.

We went in the store and the salesman was smart and personable.

Do you have this particular mattress in a California king, I asked.

He checked his computer and he said yes, they had one but only one in their warehouse. But there was a problem. They didn’t have the base and it would take four weeks to order one in.

I asked if we could borrow an ordinary bedframe and then swap that out when the base came in and he said that would work.

We bought the exact same brand mattress as the first store but we got a bigger bed that was delivered the next day and we paid more than $2,000 less. And we got the base in about a week later.. And they only charged us $50 for delivery.

I never imagined I would pay that much money for a bed. But that’s the going price if you want all the bells and whistles.

It has a 20-year warranty. It is as big as our old waterbed. It obviously is not as soft as a waterbed but it will be very healthful to sleep on. I like to play with the controls. (You can actually control the base with your cell phone but I refuse to do so.)

When I was in high school, I was a stock boy at J.C. Penney in Southland (now the Tulsa Promenade) and I bought a twin mattress for $50 because I needed a new mattress at home. I got an employee discount.

I will never again get the value that we got out of that waterbed but it is nice to have a comfortable bed and not to worry about springing a leak.