My wife has always loved to sway back and forth especially when she was singing. She has always had a beautiful voice and when she was very young she would visit the local pool hall to enjoy an ice cream cone with her Dad.

Because the town folks knew of her musical ability she would be encouraged to sing a few songs for the pool hall residents. As the singing began so did her swaying to the music.

In fact I was swept up by the swaying one time myself. Several years ago we sang a duet during a Lenten church service while the rest of the choir remained seated behind us in the choir loft. I’m not sure what came over me but as the organist began playing the intro to the song my wife began her normal swaying to the music.

We began singing and suddenly I realized I was swaying in time with the music too. I think I heard several of the women choir members began digging in their purses in search of Dramamine pills as our swaying duet was causing them to suffer motion sickness. 🙂

So Kathie’s desire to sway back and forth led to another enjoyable habit for her. She loved to rock back and forth in a rocking chair.

It came time for us to replace a couple of our living room chairs so we splurged and bought two leather, rocking recliners. They were on sale of course but then aren’t all furniture items constantly on sale in furniture stores?

We tried the chairs out in the store for comfort and we both agreed they felt great so we made the purchases.

It was an exciting day when the chairs were delivered since neither of us had ever experienced such luxury in our lives. But for Kathie the ‘chair honeymoon’ didn’t last very long.

After a couple hours of rocking and watching television she began complaining how uncomfortable her new chair was. It seemed her body did not quite fit the contour of the chair after all. She obviously didn’t get the same chair she had tested out in the furniture store.

That rocking recliner still sits unused in our living room and only gets a workout when company comes.

Kathie was disappointed but unfazed by the early breakup with her snazzy leather recliner. She simply moved over to the glider rocker that had sat mostly unused over the years.

I’m not even sure when the glider rocker became a part of our living room furniture collection. It might have been an auction sale purchase or we may have bought it on sale when our local furniture store went out of business.

However the purchase occurred it was a blessing to my wife who was in serious need of a rocking chair to get her through the mourning process of losing her uncomfortable ‘ rocking recliner’.

Things began to rock along smoothly, I in my deluxe leather recliner and Kathie in her newly discovered glider rocker. But all good things must come to an end. It’s a fact of life.

I was the first to notice the change in the glider rocker. It first began as an annoying squeak and over the weeks began to build into a very disruptive screech. Wood was rubbing against wood as the glider rocker was beginning to  show its age.

Soon I was having difficulty hearing conversations on the television. When the beautiful women on the Hallmark movie began to explain to her soon to be jilted boyfriend the reason for the breakup the screeching chair completely blocked those key words that I struggled to hear.

I began guessing what the television dialogue was and at the same time I discovered I was no good at reading lips! 🙁

After several months of squeaks and screeches I couldn’t take it any longer!

“Let’s go glider rocker shopping,” I announced one afternoon.

To my surprise Kathie jumped right up and was ready to go. I think the screeching glider rocker had finally gotten to her also.

So off we went to a neighboring town with a furniture store that had been advertising a big ongoing sale.

As we sped over the highway I reminded Kathie to be very sure that any glider rocker that she decided to buy to double check it for comfort. We didn’t need another unused piece of furniture cluttering up our living room.

Arriving at the furniture store we began searching for that perfect piece of furniture. The store did not contain a great number of rockers but we both carefully checked out the ones they did have.

Alas, no perfect glider rocker was found but hope was not yet dashed. Thirty miles away another town contained a furniture store. What better thing to do on a pandemic dreary day then to travel there and continue the glider rocker search.

The furniture store was called Slims. I smiled to myself as we entered the store thinking what if the owner turned out to be a very overweight person.  However I quickly erased that thought and got into the glider rocker purchasing mode. 🙂

A clerk told us where the glider rockers were located so off we went hoping to find the perfect rocker.

And there they were. Four beautiful glider rockers sat side by side. Kathie tried them all out several times and decided the wooden rocker with blue cushions was her favorite.

While Kathie was testing out each chair carefully I was eyeing one of the chairs. It was a beauty! And you know my recliner was getting a little dilapidated. I had worn a hole in the arm rest where my sharp elbow rested. And this glider rocker was much smaller then my recliner and wouldn’t take up as much room in our tiny living room.

Do you see where this is going?

And because I wouldn’t be able to recline in the glider rocker I wouldn’t have such a tendency to fall asleep and miss the middle parts of all the Hallmark movies.

So the glider rocker search turned out to be doubly successful. We each ended up with a beautiful, quiet glider rocker.

It’s too soon to tell what effect my non-reclining glider rocker will have on my nightly sleep patterns. So far to good. 🙂

So it turned out to be a very enjoyable pandemic day. We could use more of those.

And this winter as Christmas arrives we will be truly “rocking around the Christmas tree”! 🙂

Until next time.