Rope Swing

What is there about a rope swing that seems to set you free, in some ways space sailing out on a rope swing is as close to flying as a kid can get. I was thinking about my best friend's oldest sister this morning somehow for some reason just after waking. Somehow the circular thinking got me thinking about her grandparents. I thought it was so cool that their grandparents lived in the house right next to their home and they could visit anytime they wanted. In the yard was a massive tree and on that tree hung a rope swing. We use that swing a lot.

Besides the swing in my best friends grandparent yard I can think of two other rope swings in my life that seem to play a part in my youth. I don't know why but we had a lot of locust trees on our property. I was taught these are the kind of weird to say produced thorns on some of their branches which made climbing them sometimes a bit precarious. Our property was bisected by a giant Canal called the New York Canal. The only reason I mention this is because at the base of the canal at the end of our property through a huge locust tree and I think it was so huge because it had ample access to copious amounts of water. I'm sure there is significant see page from the giant aqueduct. As I've mentioned the tree was massive and its limbs were huge perfect for climbing and fastening the rope to which we would use the swing. I don't think I had the scale are the courage to climb to the upper levels of the tree so my brother must've climbed to a higher limb fasten the rope that we used to launch ourselves from the lower branch the swing out way over a ditch and part of the field and back again. That was it nothing really significant happened just a large long parabolic (?) Swing ending where you began. In the summer we spent hours under that big tree swinging and just hanging out.

The other significant swing was off this huge device that we called I hate lifter for lack of a better noun. This wooden structure was at the farm when we moved in. I have an image of this device somewhere but I cannot lay my hands on it right now. But it was built of wood a huge slanting device that looked like a huge praying mantis. At the base was a wooden fork device that we would pitch hay onto from the hay wagon and then we would either look up the Studebaker pickup truck or tractor and drive away from the lifter and this would raise that he covered device up the slope and device and dump the hay over the top on to the growing haystack. I will write more about this a lifter in another blog once I find a better image/ example . Once the hay was on the stack we are really forbidden to be on the hay. Once the hay was gone however (my dad would throw part. Hey over to the cattle all fall space and early winter to we ran out of hay. Then we could use the hay lifter. Eventually the big tow ropes which operated the lifting platform frayed and broke and were left hanging which of course I immediately saw the use and started swinging from the side of the lifter where there was a ladder. I could sail out a great distance and then come back in land where I started if I was lucky and skilled. I started this game of twisting as I launched myself off the ladder to see how many times I could Spin a circle before coming back to perch on the latter I think the best I ever did was for spin.

I doubt this is very interesting to anyone but myself who barely remembers being able to fly at the end of a rope in days past…