Thanks so much for visiting my site! My name is Jim Watts. I wanted to tell you the story of how granny-rockers came to life.
I taught high school art and served as a middle school assistant principal before retiring in 1999. I am now in my 20th year as the Mayor of the city of Bowdon, Georgia.
My brother and sister-in-law had just completed building a lake house and had purchased a rocking chair in Louisiana. The one rocking chair was to have been followed by others, which had been back-ordered for six months. Visiting the lake house, and seeing the need for more chairs, I volunteered to make use of my shop and build several. I returned to the lake house the following week with two chairs similar to the one they had purchased. Everyone bragged on the chairs and family members requested me to build more. At that time, my sister-in-law was to be a grandmother for the first time and I thought a rocking chair for her and the grandchild would be in order. She is, or claims to be, five feet tall. A rocking chair that would be wide enough for her and the grandchild and low enough for her feet to be on the groundd seemed to be the answer. I made the first "granny rocker" and gave it to her.
I made several rockers after that and took some to school for use in the classrooms. Teachers began to request rockers for their own use and I began building more and more. The design changed for the original concept. I made one, then corrections were made on the next. When the final concept was to my liking, I made templates to assure that each rocker I made hadd the same back support, leg room, and width.
My wife and I began doing craft shows after our retirement. The shows have allowed us to travel to different places and meet a variety of people.
  
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