The Swing Set

My brother bought his wife a brand new glider a few years ago. It had it all, a canopy to keep the sun off, padded cushions to cushion your seat, and all done in lovely colors. They put it on their deck and watched the squirrels tear it apart. Now they love squirrels. They feed them so well that the squirrels on their deck knock on the window when they want more and never even bat an eye when someone walks within kissing distance, but my brother did not buy this glider for them no matter what anyone says. He bought it for his wife, who, it turns out, hates mosquitoes. By the time the squirrels were done with the glider, my brother tossed it out in the alley behind his house for the trash man to take away.

My neighbor, Gary, who happened to live between my house and my brother's house, asked if he could have the frame for his swing and my brother was happy for him to take it. Gary hung a little wooden swing in between all the fancy hardware and he and his wife sat on it every night while he drank a case of beer. By the end of the year, Gary's wife had the house sided and new windows put in all around. She bought a big custom shed for the back yard and Gary had to drink his beer inside where the neighbor's couldn't see him. The glider frame went back to the alley, only due to the youth and lack of enthusiasm of its movers, it only made it part of the way.

During that same year my sister, who had a little metal swing that her ex-brother-in-law had given her, and which I had painted to look like an American Flag for her, and which she had hung on an old swing set frame, survived a terrible an ice storm. Unfortunately, the frame from her old swing set was not so lucky. The huge old sweet gum tree, which had only been dropping foot piercing spiked seeds for years, decided to drop half its bulk on her swing set. A neighbor hauled the frame out to the alley along with the tree limbs, but she put her little country swing in the cellar.

This year, when I had a chance to move to a place with both a view and a yard to see it from, I thought how nice it would be to have a backyard swing. I had a yearning and I had ideas, but I had no money, so I brought the glider from near the alley and the swing from the cellar and they lay in my backyard until one night when I went out and took off everything I didn't need, painted everything I did need and put it all together. I am now the proud owner of one backyard swing.