As we were traveling to Paris, we had a connection in Philadelphia which is a very busy airport. These days it is common to have Internet, restaurants and charging stations to make the stay in the airport more comfortable, but I have never seen a long line of white rocking chairs with contented travelers rocking their children or themselves to pass the time.

The first known use of the word rocking chair was in 1766 and was thought to have been invented by Benjamin Franklin, although there is no real evidence to support this claim. Appropriately for this post, president John Kennedy was prescribed a rocking chair for his bad back and loved it so much that he took one on Air Force One! He even bought them for Camp David and gave them as gifts to visiting heads of state.

Apparently the idea started in the Charlotte airport about 10 years ago and has now spread to almost 100 airports including Charlotte, Philadelphia and Logan. I say kudos to Philidelphia for making this bold seating selection.