The Little Rocking Chair

Thursday is the day to pull out some of your most precious Vintage Thingies

and join the party over at Coloradolady .

This is the story of a little rocking chair.  The first years of its life are a mystery.

Early in the 1930s a young couple were married and the young wife dreamed

of being a mother rocking a baby in such a chair.  Years passed and no baby

came into her own life, although she cared for many babies in her professional

life as a registered nurse.  After seven years of waiting, the news was finally good!

There would be a baby very soon.

She began her search for the perfect rocking chair. In a small antique store on the

east side of Detroit she found a very small rocking chair that was tattered, dusty and

had torn caning on the back.  It didn't look very comfortable with its torn back and still

intact cane seat. After visiting the chair at the store many times, the decision was made.

And that's how this tiny rocker, just 33" at the top of the back, came to be a part of our

family history.  The rocker was refurbished by the father-to-be, after some scolding of

the young mother-to-be for not noticing a large crack in one of the rocker rails.  A few

tears were shed and a couple of screws to secure the rail came first and then the months of waiting

for the newborn were filled with making the needlepoint upholstery that would give the

sad little rocker a whole new life.

The baby boy arrived within months, followed by another baby boy just four years later.

Many nights were spent rocking those two boys in this special little rocker that became

the young mother's steadfast companion in nursing the two babies through childhood

illnesses in the late 30s and early 40s.  She did not have the advantage of today's medicines

and immunizations to help her in her quest to raise her two boys to manhood.

By the mid 60s she was graced with two grandchildren followed quickly by two more.

Her heart was so full of joy at the prospect of the little rocking chair having a job again

and was also so very thankful for the modern medicines that helped to keep the babies in good

health.  She rocked them just for pleasure, to lull them to sleep and to remember the life

of the little rocker in raising her two boys.

The grandbabies grew and grew and prospered in their lives.  Soon the once lively

young mother to be began to be less lively and suffered from the pains of old age.

She slipped away in her sleep one night dreaming of the little rocker and all the

babies its gentle movement had enriched.

That was when the little rocker came to live at the house of the second born son. I

rocked and cradled four more grandbabies in the little rocker, while I remembered the

young woman who gave birth to my husband and what a great gift the little rocker was to me.

Remember those two screws to secure the rail that was cracked?

They are still there holding the split wood, more than 70 years later.  The rocker has

always squeaked on that side, a very distinctive squeak that became a comfort in itself as 

we all rocked babies to sleep in it.  Any mother in our family could identify that squeak

and know that a child was in good hands being loved on and cared for

in the little rocking chair.

This is the chair that has been such a part of our family.  The needlepoint was done

by my mother-in-law all those years ago.  You can still see the two screws in one of

the images and the vestiges of the original cane seat in another.

This was Ida's rocker. You can read more about her in other posts here on TLRT.

Remembering Ida

Some of Ida's Vintage Thingies