An Old Friend Joins the Household: 60's Rocker

This weekend an old member of the family came to live with us-- this wood frame and upholstery rocker.

I will tell you now I can't see it with objective eyes. I've known it forever. If you told me it was ugly, I would suppose you'd be right, but it's sort of like the boy and his Velveteen Rabbit. Love has worn it down, but it seems not to matter. My mother rocked me as a baby in it, and then my sister. Settling into it feels like being held in the palm of memory, gently. Whether I like it or would have chosen it really seems irrelevant to the amount of time its spent in my life.

It was part of a furniture set, this chair, a sofa, two end tables, and a coffee table, bought around the time I was born in the late 1960's. I have the coffee table still. I have one of the end tables, and my sister has the other. It was inexpensive pine stained to look like maple, a Colonial Revival style living room set for those on a budget.

The fabric seems just right for this time of year. Harvest colors, anyone?

I have it in the living room right now, as pictured. It took the place of one of the outdoor armchairs, which I moved out to the screen porch in the big cleanup described in a recent post. Its small size doesn't seem to scale with the larger, more modern looking brown leather couch. In spite of that, it seems to fit better in this house, like the house and the chair are on speaking terms with each other.

Because of that, I don't know that it will stay where it is. If it moves to another room, it might have the cushions recovered. I'm not sure yet. I just know it's found a home with family.