In the summer of 1956 my dad drove to Park Fair Shopping Center and walked in the back door of WT Grant and headed to the lawn furniture section. He had looked at metal chairs before and now the time seemed right to buy them to place on the front patio. Two heavily structured chairs. The only color available at the time was a green (John Deere green) trimmed in black. He paid $5.99 for each one and out the back door he went to load them into his 1954 Chevy Bel-Air and head home.
As the story goes my Mother loved the chairs but hated the color as she wanted yellow chairs trimmed in white. And the first lesson of life “don’t wait until summer to buy something when it was available in the spring.”
Well, the chairs remained green until the following summer when they received their first coat of yellow paint with white armrests and legs. The chairs remained on the front patio as long as I can remember. They were comfortable when they sat in the shade and would burn your backside after sitting in the sun.
Each winter the chairs would be hauled to the basement to protect them from the elements which is probably why they’ve lasted all these years.
It seemed like when the chairs returned from the basement each spring they’d get a new coat of yellow paint. They had to look nice on the front patio.
In 1984, the chairs made the move to Urbandale when my folks built a new home there. They didn’t have a front patio so the chairs sat in the garage and were drug out for an evening sitting on the driveway. By now they got a fresh coat of paint as needed.
In 2009, my Mom’s health dictated a move to a retirement community. As they gave away, donated and sold belongings they insisted that I take this or that - none of which I needed or wanted. My Mother was very insistent so after much discussion I said I’d take the chairs. I think my choice shocked both of my parents but the chairs were one thing I could remember from my childhood. When they moved to Urbandale their home was no longer the place I grew up and the chairs were the one thing that reminded me of the house where I grew up.
I remember loading the chairs into my car and they weighed a ton. I thought no wonder these things have lasted all these years. I had a friend strip the paint and intended to have them powder-coated yellow and white. After the chairs were stripped I received a call from the painter saying the chairs were originally green and black and did I want to return them to their original color. I thought "why not.”
When the chairs were returned in their green and black beauty I picked up one to carry to our deck and couldn’t believe how lightweight they were. It’s then when I found out 28 coats of yellow paint had been removed.
I am quite proud of the chairs and enjoy seeing them on our deck along with Shari’s flowers. Reminds me of when I was young. I remember when Mom first saw the chairs. She looked at me said “why did you paint them green, I hated that color?” Life lesson number two “never mess with your Mother’s choice of colors for a metal lawn chair.”
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