Grandpa’s Rocking Chair

Grandpa’s Rocking Chair

 I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil in the 60s and 70s. As a boy I had the great privilege of spending many vacation days in the mountains on the border between the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The climate there was wonderful and me, my brothers, sisters and cousins used to spend our winter vacations in July with our grandparents at their farm. This was a big coffee farm with 130 employees, horses, cows, big orchards loaded with fruit and tractors everywhere. We all loved it!

I was one of the youngest grandkids so my grandparents weren’t as active anymore, already in their 60s when I was born. One of the things that I remember was my grandfather resting in his straw rocking chair chewing only one barley candy a evening after a long day, dealing with things like accounting, bills, employees, sick animals, vaccination, coffee storage and the many other things that running a coffee farm involves. Vovô Clóvis was a very smart businessman and very kind and loving to my grandmother. He wasn’t particularly the hugging and kissing type with his grandchildren but I could tell that deep down he loved to have us around and provide a healthy environment for his grandchildren to grow and learn so much about nature, popular culture and really how to get things done.

As with anyone, time passed and my grandparents passed away in the late 70s. Both within 6 months of each other, but not before completing 50 years of marriage, months before my grandmother passed away. With the partition of the properties between my Uncle and my Mother as sole heirs, my Uncle’s family received most of the farm and we received a smaller portion without a house. We decided to build a house for vacations in the smaller property. There were no issues and the families were and continue to be in the best of terms. I loved my late uncle like a second father and still love my aunt who so many times cared for my injuries at the farm when my mother wasn’t there for our vacations.

When we built the house we received a lot of furniture from the family. One of the items that ended up in our new house was Vovô Clóvis rocking chair. It was placed in the main living room. Close to that living room was a TV room with it’s own door to isolate the noise from each side. This was a big house that hosted more than 30 people at times!

One July in 1986 when I was in college I went there to spend some time by myself. We had caretakers to maintain the yard, clean the house and cook, who lived (and still do) in a separate house in the property. I usually just warmed up my dinner so they weren’t there after 4 PM. I really liked to rest, sleep late, watch VHS movies at night and look at the stars and really get out of the enormously noisy city São Paulo was and still is.

On a really cold evening while watching a movie, in a house without central heat and with all windows shut, I had to stop to go get something to drink. While walking to the kitchen I had to go through the living room. After a couple steps I smelled, very strongly, something that I hadn’t smelled in years: barley candy! Wow that smell made me remember being a little kid right by my Grandfather. I don’t think I ever even saw that candy after my childhood but I later found out that the company that made it had gone out of business in the early 70s. Anyway, I went on and grabbed something to drink in the kitchen. As I walked back I could not believe my eyes. My Grandfather’s chair was rocking by itself, back and forth. At first the hair on my neck stood up. Then I thought better and just smiled at it. I watched the chair for about a minute or so and then it stopped. The smell of barley candy was also gone.

That never happened again, even though I went back to the house hundreds of times. David Almeida, May 11, 2015