Song of the porch swing

True story of the fun we had as children, on a porch swing, making up a guessing game.  My Pap-paw made the swing in his woodshop and it hung on Mam-maw L's front porch until she left her home to live at an assisted living facility.  It now hangs at my second cousin's house.

Porch Swing Guessing Game

With strict instructions: not too high and do not stand,

The old porch swing was built by hand,

It hung for years on my Mam-maw’s front porch,

In the winter’s cold and the summer’s scorch,

We would always go swing when we were there,

In our younger days, without a care,

The two-lane highway was not so far,

And we’d play guess the color of the car,

The guessing game was a porch swing hit,

Swinging and guessing until someone quit,

Before the next car could top the hill,

We each would guess and what a thrill,

To get it right, and laugh, then guess again,

To see who ultimately would win,

If I said red and my sister said white,

And it was a red & white car, we would fight,

The swing was painted gray and hung from silver chain,

Loaded down with 2 or 3 children, the chains creaked in pain,

“Squeak” on the upswing and” squawk” on the down,

It was a unique, but welcomed metal-to metal sound,

The song of the porch swing, played a familiar tune,

As we outgrew our guessing game way too soon.

Tammy Harvey

Written:  3/7/2017