Grandpa Jack's swing

Grandpa Jack's swing
Originally uploaded by Saintbridge

Growing up, we lived 500 miles from most of my aunts and uncles and cousins. It was a special time when we went to Indiana to visit -- and for us kids, to play!

The only grandfather I really ever got to know was Jack Foutz, my grandma's 2nd husband. He was just a real treasure to the entire family. He treated Grandma Foutz royally and doted on each of the grandkids despite having no known biological relatives of his own (he was adopted).

He was a plumber by trade and used pipes and such to build a swingset in their back yard for us kids to play on when we came to visit. I was always jealous of the cousins who lived in Muncie and nearby because they got to play on it so much more than we did.

When I went back for my uncle's funeral last month my younger sister and I went by their house to see what it looked like. Predictably it was rundown and unkempt and the decline of the neighborhood that had begun in the 1970s had clearly removed any semblance to the house I remember.

However the swingset still stands and one swing still hangs from the sturdy pipes and chains erected so long ago by Grandpa Jack. The wooden seat has traces of moss on it and is severely pitted and weathered, but it is still rigid and suitable for any child who might happen to climb up for a session of hurling back and forth through the air.

Grandpa Jack's handiwork endures and might even last longer than my memories of playing in their back yard and swinging almost up to the sky on that glorious apparatus.