Chief Bromden is back! When I was a teenager, I worked crew on a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. At the end of the run, they didn’t have the $25 they were supposed to pay me, so they gave me the bulky rocking chair Chief Bromden raises above his head in a dramatic scene. It was painted black and orange and had dozens of wads of gum stuck to the bottom. The next time I moved, I was going to leave it on the curb, but Gary (who had actually played Bromden in a different production before we met) wanted to keep it. He chiseled off all the gum wads and stripped the paint to reveal this gorgeous tiger oak. We lugged Chief Bromden with us through several moves, and I spent the next 30+ years in it, rocking my babies, reading, writing, and thinking. So last summer, we moved from Houston just a couple weeks before Hurricane Harvey. Our stuff was still in the mover’s warehouse when the floodwaters came. We were eventually able to get most of it back, but among the broken and water damaged casualties was poor Chief Bromden. I’m blown away by the restoration done by the craftsmen at Summit Lake Antiques outside Olympia. When we picked up Chief Bromden yesterday, Mr. Jasper told us that, based on hardware and construction, he figures the chair is about 140 years old and is now good for another century of sleepy babies, good books, and daydreams. * #ourhouse #secondhandstuff #junklove #antiques (at Westport Light State Park)