Gold Medal Chairs

Gorgeous day in CT and I am taking advantage of it being too hot to work in the garden to finish up a project for the farm I started awhile ago - repairing and repainting a pair of old chairs that were headed for the dumpster in Ohio. I remember these chairs - and some other matching pieces that seem to have disintegrated or at least, disappeared - from my earliest childhood memories of the farm. In fact, here's a picture my mom took in the mid-50's which I'm sure she took because of the interesting shadows - but darn if my chairs (the two on the left) aren't the subject of her picture!

Anyway, I was remembering none of this when I rescued the chairs - mostly I did it because they are nice chairs, and because Laura and Jan have me thinking 'sustainability' and re-use these days. So I scarfed them up, threw them in the Explorer and schlepped them home to Connecticut, where they've been sitting in the garage until this weekend. The slats in the seats were missing or broken and needed replacing, then of course there was a good sanding, and finally, a couple coats of paint. While I was sanding, I noticed a little metal tag on each chair, which said 'Gold Medal Folding Furniture, Racine, Wisconsin'. Of course I looked them up on the web - the company no longer seems to exist, but they were a popular maker of camp furniture in the 1920's, and in fact seem to have been the company that made popular the folding 'director's chair' style with canvas seat and back. Also made wooden folding cots that were standard issue in the US Army at the time.

And while I was working away, I thought - yeah, I could go to Walmart and pick up a couple of lawn chairs for cheap. And on the back, they'd say (injection molded into the plastic) 'Made in China'. No company name, no city or town - because after all, they're just generic lawn chairs and if they get stained or broken we'll throw them away and buy new ones.

Anyway, here are my finished chairs. I think I'll take them back to Ohio next week, and maybe I'll take another look through the barn for the bench and table that went with the set. They are comfy to sit in - come and visit and you can have one and I'll take the other and we'll sit on the lawn in the shade with a pitcher of ice tea!