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Hammocks
Clamber into a hammock on a sunny afternoon* and chances are your feet won’t touch the ground again for a long time. Once you are swaying gently beneath a couple of rustling trees, the book you had intended to read will have dropped from your hands as you drift off into a deep and contented snooze. It’s almost as though the hammock was created for a state of blissful idleness and meant solely for summer days.
Its origins, however, are less sybaritic and more functional. The first people to sleep suspended in the air between two trees were natives of Central and South America. They fashioned a sling from the bark of a hamack tree (thus coining the name) to enable them to slumber above crawling and biting insects and to keep them away from marauding animals. Later versions were made from sisal, then woven fabric and netting. Sailors in the US and British navy slept in canvas versions, which not only maximised the cramped conditions below deck (they could be rolled up and stowed),
“It’s as though it was created for a state of blissful idleness and summer days”
but also kept them cocooned and secure as their hammocks swung in synchronised motion with the ship. Before the arrival of the hammock, sailors were often pitched out of berths during stormy crossings.
Many hammocks are still made in Central America and in Mexico, where they are in frequent use and known as ‘cradles of the gods’. These are countries familiar with the notion of siestas and the pleasures of being rocked to sleep safe from harm.
Europeans and North Americans look on the hammock more as an accessory than as an essential item for the home. Unless they are wild campers, when a lightweight hammock can offer a less claustrophobic, more in-tune-with-nature alternative to a tent (see page 72). For the rest of us, it is the place to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon in the garden. The only hitch is that once installed in one (especially if accompanied by another, like husband and wife Cher and Greg Allman, pictured), it is hard to get out. But, really, what’s the hurry? The hammock is not the place for the hasty.