Every summer around Memorial day weekend my grandfather would carry the adirondack chairs out to the garden from the cellar and we would sand them down and repaint them white.
To me this signified the beginning of summer ; a shoe box filled with sanding paper , several paint brushes and a can of white paint.
I looked forward to sharing this outdoor project with my grandfather every year.
He was a good conversationist as well as a good listener.
My grandmother would bring us chilled juice or iced tea and would sometimes join us in conversation as we sanded and painted the day away.
When my Grandparents retired they moved from metropolitan Boston to Cape Cod .
The adirondack chairs were starting to wear thin by that time and I suppose my grandmother wanted nice new modern garden furniture for her new retirement house.
So the last time I painted the adirondack chairs was somewhere around 1974 or so.
That is how I sentimentalize about adirondack chairs. They are the harbinger of summer and the proffer of good conversations. ... after all, they are comfortable.
Leann White Photography
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| From portfolioMay08.jpg |
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| From portfolioMay08.jpg |
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6 comments:
I love the little blue kids chair in the last photo, how cutie
Iconic and timeless and goes well with melianthus...very nice post, Michelle.
Those of us who have memories of times like that with our grandparents are so very lucky. Great post.
A great story Michelle! Ah the memories of youth and the thrill of Summer. For me, it was the launching of my dad's old wood ketch, a thirty-seven foot masive old double ender built in 1931 by a couple of homesick Swedes who planned to sail her home. Named Astrid after the Princes born back in 1926, she was a lovely old ship, seaworthy, but slow. My dad and I labored all Winter and Spring on her sanding and painting, repairing, and replaceing old planks, until the day would arrive and into the water she would be dropped. Afterwards, except for hours of brass polishing and general "swabby" details, I could work on my tan and bob about the Great Lakes with my family. Too bad I didn't really appreciate it until it was gone.
We burned the old girl a few years back. After several years of dry dock, she was too dry rotted to return to the water. Farewell...
before we moved here we lived in NY...Upstate. Just miles from the original elaware river. At an estate sale I bought 6 Adirondack chairs that sat at the farmhouse overlooking woodstock. Timeless relics!
Great evocative post!
Such a lovely post -- grandparent memories are the best. Mine are of fishing, crabbing, beach-combing and gardening. Bougainvillea encompassing their front porch, picking all the cherry tomatoes when my grandfather wasn't looking, mangoes, banana passionfruit and a nightly fish fry of what we'd caught that day. Sigh. Thanks for taking me back. :)
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