Happy Monday! I really made it here on Monday this week! I finished To the Moon and Back and had zoom book club with my Grand K last night. We both decided the main character was a bit redeemed, but the ending still wasn’t what we expected. Some nice surprises though. She picked our next book, something completely different than what we’ve read so far, so maybe it will eventually be a selection for Book Review Monday! I hope your week began with a curiosity for trying something new, too.

Like last week, I’m in-between short jaunts. This past Tuesday through Friday I was in North Carolina’s high country with my Poet Sisters doing a deep dive of editing and revision on our poetry collaboration. It was an intense several days marking up each other’s poems, discussing and debating words and punctuation placement, and overall strengthening the book all of us are excited about. The setting could not have been more conducive for creative work, relaxation, and love of friends.

The screened-in porch was my favorite spot. It wrapped around the cabin with plenty of room for rockers and ladder-back chairs, a picnic table and bench, and a porch swing. When one of the other sisters and I first arrived, the cabin was unexpectedly locked. The porch sheltered us from rain while we waited for the others–one had the door code–and caught up.

A few years back, when I was working on my parish’s history book, I spent hours in front of the microfiche machine at the public library. Besides grabbing articles about the church, other snippets caught my eye–like this one.

It reads:

Automobiles are Making the Front Porches Obsolete Back in the horse and buggy days the front porch was a favorite spot during the Summer months, but with the coming of the automobile the family prefer to take a long ride in their car when endeavoring to keep cool and comfortable.

The front porch therefore is rapidly falling into disuse. Many families when remodeling the house now specify a small stoop which protects the doorway during inclement weather. The porch has been discarded as being an unnecessary expense.

I begged to differ.

I didn’t note the article’s date, but family automobiles came into vogue in the 1920s, well before I was born. Growing up, front porches were still places to keep cool and comfortable, especially when August’s heat arrived. The open sides allowed breezes to circulate while the roof shaded from the sun and protected from rain.

In Ohio, we didn’t start back to school until after Labor Day, family vacations to Cedar Point and family picnics happened in June and July, leaving the muggy days of August open for whatever adventures we kids dreamed up. The front porch became a place to get out of mom’s hair while she did laundry and cleaned house. Our porch didn’t have a railing, making this adventure safer; we had a bench swing at one end, and if I timed it just right, I could fly off the swing, land and run across the porch, then leap over the low hedge without breaking my stride. Never did land in the hedge. Some days I’d sit on the steps with neighbor kids eating melting popsicles, fudgesicles, or orange sherbet push-ups we’d bought at the market down the street. I probably fell in love with porches then.

I’ve written before about my maternal grandparents’ huge front porch on their second-story apartment. It overlooked a busy street and the public library so always a place of calm above the bustling below. I can still conjure the feeling of Grandma’s sisal rug on my bare feet, the coolness of metal chairs with scalloped shell backs, and Grandma’s cactus plants I occasionally bumped into. It was a gathering space for family.

The first house my first Hubby and I bought had a front porch, also with a swing. My oldest son was born in July and the two of us spent the hot summer months trying to keep cool moving back and forth to the rhythmic creak of the swing. Our elderly neighbor two houses down also had a porch, and my infant son and I would visit her shaded alcove.

In the last few decades, that original article has come full circle. Porches shrunk and disappeared while decks and patio spaces – outdoor living spaces – expanded, but I’ve seen newer homes bringing back the front porch. They’re large enough for at least a few rockers, maybe a bistro table. Recently I experienced porch envy when a former classmate shared photos of his front porch, a wide veranda with room for comfy chairs and place to play with the Grands.

We have a deck. It’s a lovely space but doesn’t have the ambiance of a front porch. Decks are for gathering with people you invite; a front porch opens to those invited and those wandering by. I think it’s a good thing front porches are making a comeback.

What are your memories of front porches? Are you a porch or a deck sitter? Whichever you prefer, may you grab time this week to enjoy your favorite spot for relief from August’s heat. I’m off again on Friday for a weekend get-away with special friends. It’s supposed to rain all weekend … but the house has a front porch.

I’ll be back at my window on Monday, I hope you’ll join me.