With a tidy layer of snow chilling out our world today and this evening, I decided to think summer -- and what can be more summery than a swing?
The standard swing swing, the sort with a flat board as a seat, has been turned into a playground safety officer's prime project and thoroughly wimped out in the process. Fortunately, I've found that there are still a few old-fashioned swings being fashioned from tires. The example above I spotted on a back street near the old fairgrounds; that below was at the
Chino Valley alpaca farms I visited late last year.
But what to make of this object? When I grabbed a quick image in passing, I though it was some sort of tire swing. Then, on examining the photo this evenng, it turned into a possible sculpt. A deer or elk or maybe reindeer, huh? Something whispered in my ear to enlarge the putative art object -- and lo, it appears to have been sculpted from tires, possibly to make into a high-class, you guessed it, tire swing.
Me, I was never one for the tire swing, which I considered very much a guy thing. Unlike a board swing, the tire swing primarily wants to go round and round nor is it easy to control. I'm quite sure that Robert Louis Stevenson did not have a tire swing in mind
when he wrote his popular poem, but then he was writing somewhat before the automobile had been invented, wasn't he?
The standard swing swing, the sort with a flat board as a seat, has been turned into a playground safety officer's prime project and thoroughly wimped out in the process. Fortunately, I've found that there are still a few old-fashioned swings being fashioned from tires. The example above I spotted on a back street near the old fairgrounds; that below was at the Chino Valley alpaca farms I visited late last year.
But what to make of this object? When I grabbed a quick image in passing, I though it was some sort of tire swing. Then, on examining the photo this evenng, it turned into a possible sculpt. A deer or elk or maybe reindeer, huh? Something whispered in my ear to enlarge the putative art object -- and lo, it appears to have been sculpted from tires, possibly to make into a high-class, you guessed it, tire swing.
Me, I was never one for the tire swing, which I considered very much a guy thing. Unlike a board swing, the tire swing primarily wants to go round and round nor is it easy to control. I'm quite sure that Robert Louis Stevenson did not have a tire swing in mind when he wrote his popular poem, but then he was writing somewhat before the automobile had been invented, wasn't he?
*That*, Mamasan, is a horsie swing. They had them at Young's Farm, and other places, for sale. The dotter, as you can imagine, really wanted one. The spinning action on old-fashioned tire swings is greatly admired by the young'uns, by the way.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I call a swinging post.
ReplyDeleteThese tire swing sculptures have become an art form! Fun pics.
ReplyDeleteLooking closely I believe that horse is sculpted from a single tire...
ReplyDeleteThe tire is flipped inside out which creates the bulged flanks, and keeps the tread pattern off your butt! :)
Just a couple days ago my DD was saying she couldn't wait til DGD was old enough for a tire swing! Thanks for fun post!
ReplyDeletedotter -- Oh, dear -- I am getting unobservant in my dottage -- I never, never saw the things!!!
ReplyDeletesteve -- thank you, kind sir.
jarart -- I do seem to have missed out on an important development in the art of swings!
tombo -- astute observation. Thus, a more comfortable seat.
diana -- get it up before it's outlawed.
I love that poem by RLS!
ReplyDeleteIt was my favorite when I was a wee one. :)
~Anon in AV.