Gramps' Chair

This is a story about a chair that traveled from Cleveland, Ohio to Tampa, Florida - and lost its sense of place.

My Dad's older brother bought my grandfather a chair back in the sixties.  He didn't like it.  So it sat in his dining room and collected stuff.   My grandmother had passed away a few years before the chair and it would be a few more years before my uncle would die. Uncle Wayne was my Dad's younger brother who lived with Gramps.  With his passing, my grandmother's spirit left the house as well.  That is why a reclining chair sat unused in the dining room.

A few decades later and the chair ended up in my unfinished basement - directly next to my workbenches.  By this time I had converted my home tool storage area to a writing den surrounded by an ever vigilant army of sentinels - my books.  A wood burner rounded out the warmth and coziness.  It was in this setting that peace and a sense of place had finally come to the chair.  Stories were read and written in front of cherry wood burning in the fireplace.  The chair swallowed me in for great sessions of meditation and perhaps its greatest asset, the ability to induce periods of prolific thinking.  (Too bad it didn't have the ability to kick me into great periods of doing).

In 2005 the chair accompanied us on our move to Florida.  The chair sits in my office right next to my writing desk. It sits in a spiritless trance.  For whatever reason it is not comfortable in Florida.  It has lost its sense of place.  It boggles my mind how finicky and particular chairs can be.

--- Dave Rothacker

This is a contribution to our theme for July: Learning from Pictures. 

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Great story Dave! From Rosa's blue chair to this one, that has lost its sense of place, how we sit is rising to importance. Of course as you also indicate, sitting does not necessarily equal doing, that depends upon the person doing the sitting.

Wouldn't it be cool for this group to get together in our respective chairs and have a conversation? I think some action would come out of that chair time.

[dave]

Right on Steve! What a visual.

Just wondering, is anyone out there familiar with orbs? Do you believe in the party line on orbs?

[Rosa Say]

Dave, maybe all you need to do is toss a couple of books on the chair? Perhaps Gramps' Chair hasn't lost its sense of place exactly... maybe it has just temporarily displaced its sense of place *for you.*

Steve's comment stirs up some other thoughts for me too: I'm not much of a sitting person, for I need to be sitting and doing something. One of my best purchases *ever* has been a folding bed tray that I saw in a bargain bin, for it converts whichever chair I'm sitting in at home into a portable project space. It sits on the end of our dining room table when I'm not using it, and I toss random pick-up work on it (like unopened mail, buttons to be sewn back on etc.) My paper To-Do list lives on it.

[Rosa Say]

And Dave, not familiar with the orbs you refer to... would you tell us more please?

[Karen Wallace]

Dave, great story!

"not comfortable in Florida"... hmm, I cannot help but share the thought that popped into my head when I saw the chair. Hot. Sticky. Not comfortable. Now, that may not be the case, but that's what it's telling me. Maybe it's not the chair, but simply its covering? Could you have it recovered in a cooler, more heat-friendly fabric? Something that breathes and helps you to breathe away your cares and zone out sometimes. If your summers are anything like ours here in Queensland, it isn't that "warmth and coziness" you're seeking now.

[dave]

Here are a couple of links to explanations of orbs:

http://www.weeklyuniverse.com/2005/orb.htm
http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/orbs.htm

There is one orb on the seat portion of this chair. I took ten pictures of the chair the same time that I took this one. There are no orbs in the other pictures.

"maybe it has just temporarily displaced its sense of place *for you.*" Rosa - for me to conclude otherwise would mean that for real, I believe there to be a spirit, an entity about the chair. Although I really don't believe there to be, I like to push my mind to the edge about such things. Because unless I go there, how else could I know about things? In other words, if my journey were to require that I turn left in one mile and then left again in an other, how could I possibly know what is ahead unless I follow those footsteps?

Karen - right on observation. Even in Ohio I had to place a small blanket on the seat. That is, unless I wanted to leave a good portion of my skin behind when I got off.

Rosemary my wife, absolutely HATES when I write this way. For me it is a comfortable Saturday night out on the porch with a cool beverage watching the cars cruise by. And I ain't talkin bout mini-vans and Pintos. Sorry :-) Ok, check this out...

Rosemary would say, "David, why don't you just come out and tell your readers that you are uncomfortable in our home in Florida?"

You know why I don't? Besides that it feels so darn good writing this way, I like to increase the panoramic view of my subject. Perhaps my observation might instill other thoughts or maybe even a clearer perception as to what I do want to imply.

For the record, I am not really uncomfortable in this home. Just parts of me are...

[Debra Estep]

It's been ages since I've been to visit here on
JJL. I scrolled through the first page,
and then clicked the older button at the bottom
of the page, then through to the next and I came to...

Gramps' Chair - as soon as the bold black letters went through my mind I thought.. 'MY GRAMPS' ??? and then I read 'Cleveland' and I knew it.... My Gramps indeed.

It's been ages since I even thought about Gramps chair.
Our Grandpa Rothacker passed in 1994. I was clueless that you had hauled the chair with you to Florida. OF COURSE IF I would have been down to visit you in the 3 years I would have known. I know, 'open invite sis'. LOL

I had to blow up the picture to view the orb.

http://tinyurl.com/Gramps-Orb

No doubt Gramps would be hanging around you,
first born Grandson that you are.!! :)

Maybe the chair is a portal of time travel
for BOTH of you. wink

xo xo
Debs_E