Thursday, July 30, 2009

Swings

My dad is a very handy man. His dad, my Papaw, built houses for a living and as soon as he was old enough my dad was out there by his side helping him. So when I was born it was only natural to my dad that he would build things for me. When I turned 5 he built me my very own swing-set. In my opinion it was the best swing-set in the neighborhood.

My swing-set had a slide. two swings, a trapeze, and a teeter-totter. I spent hours out playing on the swing-set. I'd create dance routines and the neighbor girls and I would put on performances for our families. My dad would give us "high pulls" and on occasion we would jump off the swings. We would also swing as high as we could and see who could kick their shoes the furthest.
As you can see our lawn took quite the beating for all our swinging and playing but my parents never complained. I grew up imagining I was in the circus or off having some great adventure and that was all that mattered to them.

Of couse, as always happens, I got older and no longer used the swing-set as much. The trapeze rusted and the swings cracked from exposure to extreme cold. The slide went to a good home and there the swing-set sat, an empty frame.

Until yesterday...

Yesterday morning Jonathan got curious and asked what "that thing" was. Immediately after my dad told him that it had been a swing-set Jonathan asked if he could swing. So we went to the home improvement store where we found a swing for Jonathan and a baby swing for Jason. I was also pleasently surprised to find a trapeze.



And so the torch was passed to the next generation. Something tells me Jonathan and Jason are going to enjoy the best swing-set on the block!

3 comments:

Kristen said...

What a fantastic story! I enjoyed!

Lisa Christine said...

What a perfect post! I love seeing things get passed from generation to generation. My older girls play with some of my childhood dolls and it makes me so happy...so I know how you feel.

Dan said...

He really isnt the kid who just asks a question, is he? He requires ACTION! I love the looks on their faces. I'm so glad they're having a blast.