Country Roads

Recently I saw a copy of the poem “Swing” by the writer, Robert Lewis Stevenson. It brought many thoughts and memories. I’m sure every mother has read this poem to her children and if not mothers need to. It goes like this---

How do you like to go up in the swing

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it is 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!

I remember my mother reading this poem to me many times, and I too read it to my sons when they were lads. Many years ago my sister and I received our first swing set. It was in the early 1950s. We had moved to Stockton, Kansas, where father decided to try a career other than farming. While in Stockton, father and mother made some new friends and mostly through the saddle club that they belonged to. One of the saddle club members was named Milt and that was the only name I knew him as. He was a burly looking man, stout built and dark skin from working outside as a foreman in the local oil fields. I don’t know if he was married or not, but I don’t believe he had any children. He “cottoned” on to my sister and I, ages 6 and 3 at that time. He decided we needed a swing set so he undertook to making us one.

It was truly one of a kind. It was made out of oil pipe and boy were they tall ones. Two pipes served as the support on either side, one pipe went across the top, and there were pipes on the bottom made into a square that supported the upper pipes. They were all welded together. There was one swing on one side that had chains coming down from the top pipe, and a wooden seat was hooked onto the chains. On the other side of the swing were more chains, that came down from the top and held to smaller iron circles. It wasn’t painted, and it was nothing fancy, but my sister and I loved it. We grew up on that sturdy and well built swing set. We’d play outside on it for hours in our yard and though it took my sister a few years before she could reach the iron circles, she couldn’t wait to try them out. A few years later, when father decided that farming was still his calling, and we moved back to Jewell County, of course the treasured swing set moved back with us.

In the years to come when another sister was added to the family, she too grew up on that swing set, and the swing set went on to entertain the grandchildren and even the great grandchildren that would come stay with my parents. To this day I’ve never seen another swing set like it.

Experts have said that swinging on playground swings is good for children in developing the brain and health in general. Oxygen is sent to the muscles while swinging. It helps the mood and activity level of the child. It is said that swinging is one of the best activities for young children to develop their sensory system. It’s also calming and can be soothing, as well as just being plain “fun!” It helps in gross motor skills including strength in the hands, arms, fingers and legs.

I’m not an expert in judging what is good about children swinging, but it makes sense to me. I remember as a child pumping my legs trying to see how high the swing would go and later seeing my sons do the same thing, as they gripped onto the chains. At the top, while still holding the chains, a person could lean back holding tight with the arms, and the legs stretching out. A quick look around showed so much at the swing’s highest point, as the poem suggested. I also remember taking the risky move of trying to jump out of the swing as it slowed down.

As far as the calming feeling goes while swinging, currently in our yard is the swing set our grandchildren used. It was homemade too by my husband’s uncle for his children. When his children were all grown, he gave it to us. It had four swing seats and as time flew by the grandchildren began to outgrow the swings, but once in a great while, the youngest two still go out to swing. So my husband and I decided to replace two of the regular swing seats with a wooden porch swing. That still leaves two swing seats when the younger grandchildren come, or when visitors come with young children.

I like to go out to the porch swing, on a warm spring or summer evening, sit and take a relaxing swing for a time. It is calming and soothing.