"As my mother used to say, a joggling board is to a piazza what mint is to a julep. If you have to ask what a piazza is - they're known as porches outside Charleston - then it's unlikely you know what a joggling board is, either" (1).
"It's pretty simple, really. A joggling board is a piece of Charleston history that measures up to 22 feet long and 13 inches wide, a supple piece of pine usually supported between wooden rollers two feet off the ground. It looks like a giant tongue depressor and acts like a trampoline" (1).
I was born and raised (and still reside) in the Lowcountry of South Carolina so joggling boards were a familiar sight for me. Though we don't have one on our porch - there isn't room since we have a swing and some rockers already ;) - there is one in my neighborhood.
I had family in town for the 4th of July. They were from Texas and they immediately noticed and questioned "that long rocker thing."
It was then, honest to God, the first time it ever dawned on me that joggling boards are an odd sight. They are sorta like a hybrid mix between a rocking chair and a see-saw. When we tried to explain to my relatives what they were and why they were built that way, the best we could come up with was they were just built long to adequately fill up those long Charleston piazzas.
Although, after a little research, I found out joggling boards have a very specific history.
Their history in Charleston dates back to the very early 1800s on Acton Plantation in Sumter, SC. A Mr. Cleland Kinloch lost his wife and had his sister, Mrs. Benjamin Kinloch Huger, come to care for his household. Mrs. Huger apparently suffered from very severe rheumatism. (2)
In an attempt to get some exercise and fresh air, her chair was placed in a carriage so she could go for rides; when she detailed this and her poor health to her relatives in Scotland, they sent her a model of a joggling board. They told her that she could sit on it and bounce to get some exercise. [If that was "exercise," I think I'd have enjoyed living in the 1800s; I'd take that any day over 45 minutes on the elliptical!] (2)
After they made the model life-size, the joggling boards became incredibly popular and spread to piazzas all over the Lowcountry. Beyond providing Mrs. Huger "exercise," joggling boards became especially popular for two reasons:
1) Children loved to play on them. They really are like trampolines. My brother and I used to jump all over them.
2) It was an excuse for couples to get close. In fact, they were known as "courting benches;" a lady would sit on one end and her crush on the other. The couple would "joggle" down the bench until they reached each other in the middle where they could whisper sweet nothings and hold hands and such. There was even a legend that if you had a joggling board on your front porch, you'd never have an unwed daughter. (3)
Hmm, maybe I should invest in one of those for the front porch ;)
Their popularity faded after World War II when the wood and hand-crafted labor were harder to come by. However, in the 1970s they regained popularity when the Old Charleston Joggling Board Company was formed after the tricentennial of South Carolina. (2)
Now, the history lives on as more and more people see those "long rocker things" known as joggling boards.
Next time you see one, be sure to sit down so you can get yourself some "exercise" and maybe even a marriage proposal ;)
Sources:
3 - Joggling Board
