Y'all Come Set a Spell!

When we were planning the house, there were three features I wanted: a metal roof, a screen porch, and a porch swing.  All are matters of nostalgia from my childhood.  Many of the several houses we lived in when I was a child had metal roofs and screen porches.  I love the sound of rain on a metal roof and a screen porch is a great way to enjoy the outdoors without fighting mosquitos.

The porch swing goes back to my grandparents' home.  My grandfather had a porch swing that I enjoyed using when he was not in it.  One time I was sitting in Paw Paw's swing eating a bowl of jello (raspberry as I remember).  I got the swing going a bit too high and tumbled out of the swing into the yard with the bowl of jello.

That is the intro to my deja vu experience.  Last Saturday evening, we invited friends from Huntsville (he is a professor at Texas A&M at Texarkana) to dinner at an Italian bistro in Trinity (yes, you heard me right, and it's very good).  We stopped back to show them the house and "set a spell" on the porch.  After about a half hour of gentle rocking in the swing, the mounting bolt came out of the ceiling and we crashed to the floor.  The bolt hit me on the head and caused quite a bit of bleeding, although it was not a serious wound.  The framer, who swore he knew where the 2"x12"mounting boards he had installed were located, had mounted it for me a couple of days before.  Apparently, he slightly missed the boards.  Luckily, I and not my friend was on the end that fell.  It is now remounted, and I am warily watching it for a while.

We bought the swing at a local hardware store early in the spring, and I had to assemble it, which was straighforward.  We bought four matching rocking chairs as shown in the photo, and I have assembled two of them.  The assembly was not quite as easy as the swing since glue and fitting spindles into pre-drilled holes were involved.  It was not difficult until I got to the runners.  The holes were not precisely drilled, and I had to shave the spindles and the holes with my pocket knife and use a hammer to make them fit.  But they seem to rock just fine.  Only two more to go.