In the late l940s and early 1950s there was a lot of outdoor furniture in use. Houses built before this time did not have air conditioning and people would sit outside until late in the afternoon to let their houses cool down before going inside for the night.
We had a set of outdoor furniture that had two or three chairs and a larger piece that was called a glider. This furniture was made of strips of metal. The glider was built like a swing but had a metal frame that it was mounted on. This piece would hold three people and a dog because someone in the bunch would usually have a dog with them. This furniture was kept in the shade so it wouldn’t be hot in the afternoon. We would usually have five or six kids sitting on the furniture. Another thing that brought kids to our yard was a stalk of ripe bananas that we always had hanging in a tree. Our dad was the banana man in Cullman.
All of us kids in the neighborhood had fun sitting around singing, talking and telling ghost stories just before time to go home.
Now, you are beginning to wonder, “How did they come up with an electric glider?” If you saw the movie “The Sound of Music” they sang “Somewhere in my childhood I must have done something good.” Well, in my very early years, I must have developed a mischievous streak. I am the one who thought up the idea. I lean in the direction of scaring folks and every once in a while, pulling a prank on someone.
The electric part of the glider was not to operate the glider but to operate the person seated in the glider. With the glider being all metal, I came up with the idea of running a wire from the spark plug on the lawnmower to the glider. When someone was seated and comfortable, I would pull the rope on the lawnmower. This would give the occupants of the glider a real tingle over their whole body. There were some strange sights when this happened. Now, I didn’t do this to adults, only to teenage friends, mostly of the female gender.
So you might say that the electric glider was for entertainment until everyone was initiated. Then the glider was used for comfort and the dogs refused to sit on it.
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