ON TIRE AND PORCH SWINGS

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside -

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown -
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Robert Louis Stevenson


I ran across this poem today and it reminded me of the tire swings we had when I was a child. Funny you don't see swings anymore but when I was little, every yard had either a tire swing or a rope swing with a wooden seat. Even the grown-ups had swings on the front porch and used them. They were not there just for decoration, like they are today. I think people in the South still use them quite a bit,,,especially if you live in the country. But you never see anyone in the cities, sitting on their porches.

Swings were once, the place to be, after Supper in the evening. You fought over the swing, otherwise you had to sit on the steps or in a rocking chair. Many a cat had his tail shortened because of rocking chairs,,but that's another story altogether. I think Air conditioners are great but they did stop people from getting to know their neighbors better. When we walked down the street back then in the evening, we could visit with all the neighbors sitting on their front porch to keep cool. Many a romance bloomed in a porch swing afer the grown-ups went inside.

But back to the tire swing....We would swing for hours. I would push a while and then my Sister would push high enough to make me scream...yes she did...she loved me but torturing me was her favorite past time. I am sure I am not the only little sister that was tortured in that way. LOL They boys sat on the top or stood if they were brave and had someone push them. Skinned knees and elbows happened a lot when they fell..but I don't remember any serious damage.

We didn't get first dibs on the tire though. Grandma did. She would cut them in half and use them as watering troughs for her chickens. Someone on my garden blog, mentioned using them as planters. I believe I have seem them somewhere, but they paint them white, I think....If she didn't need it then we got it to roll up and down hills. We would get inside that tire somehow by winding ourselves around inside and then let a buddy roll us down the hill. Then when it was really worn out, we would take it to Daddy and he would make us a swing. He took hemp rope and ran it through the tire and hung it over a strong limb. There it was and not a dime spent.

I saw what passes for a tire swing on the Internet the other day. It was in the shape of a pony and one was in the shape of a duck..they were black and looked like rubber and very expensive. They were trying to duplicate that great swing but the spirit was just not there I am sure the kids who have one of those, love them but not in the same way we did. We were there at the birth of that tire,,we knew it's history.......New ones in the shape of animals are just not the same. Out plan Was to "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without"....Paying money for one just seems wrong.