We had a porch when I was growing up. \u00a0A big porch that wrapped all around the front of the house. \u00a0We roller skated on that porch with skates you needed a key in order to fasten them onto your shoes.<\/p>\n
I would swing on the porch swing while reading library books. \u00a0All the lazy Summer afternoon. \u00a0Back and forth. \u00a0Turn a page. \u00a0Back and forth. \u00a0Turn a page.<\/p>\n
I would sit on the porch swing with my girlfriend eating suckers and kicking the swing higher and higher. \u00a0Sometimes my brothers would swing me so high I could touch the porch ceiling with my feet. \u00a0We lived dangerously!<\/p>\n
Back when I was growing up right after Christopher Columbus discovered America, most of the houses in our small town had front porches. \u00a0David’s grandfather would sit out on his front porch at night and if my mother and I would drive by their house, all we could see was the light from his cigar as he sat in his rocking chair smoking and rocking. \u00a0“There’s Mr. Henley,” \u00a0my mother would say and all I could see was the ember from his cigar. \u00a0Somehow that was comforting to me. \u00a0To know Mr. Henley was sitting on his porch on a warm Summer’s evening enjoying his last cigar of the day. \u00a0All was well with the world. \u00a0One day Mr. Henley would become my grandfather-in-law.<\/p>\n
On long Summer evenings, my mother, aunt and I and sometimes my sister, who lived down the road would sit out on our porch and I would swing while they sat in the glider and talked. The dogs would lay at our feet seeming to enjoy the company. \u00a0 Sometimes we children would be playing hide and seek or kick the can while the adults talked. \u00a0 Back then there was talk of flying saucers and every once in a while my mother would say she saw one and we would look at what was probably an air plane flying across the sky. \u00a0It would send shivers down my spine anyway. \u00a0Once a bat flew above our heads as we sat on the porch and we all would scream each time it would pass overhead.<\/p>\n
David’s grandma sat on her front porch and watched the world go by. \u00a0She knew everything that was happening on her street. \u00a0People would walk by and say hello and sometimes stop in to talk.<\/p>\n
Porch sitting is becoming a lost art. \u00a0Too many of the newer homes don’t even have a porch. \u00a0Just a little stoop or entryway, but nowhere to sit and wile away the hours. \u00a0People are too busy to porch sit, it seems. \u00a0I want porch sitting to come back. \u00a0You see your neighbors out in their yards, mowing the lawn and you smell the new mown grass. \u00a0You see the cars going by, \u00a0the train chugging down the track, the mailman bringing your mail, and the occasional fire truck or ambulance going to help someone. \u00a0Perhaps you would see a mother walking her baby, or a runner practicing for a marathon, \u00a0a child learning to ride his bicycle for the very first time or flowers being delivered to you. \u00a0I have seen all these from my front porch.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you even see something you would hope you never see. \u00a0An accident. \u00a0One day years ago, a man ran into a tree in the front yard of our neighbor’s yard and I ran to call an ambulance. \u00a0Before we knew it there were twenty-three police cars(we counted them) and three ambulances in front of our house. \u00a0My children watched it all as they got the man out of the car and into the ambulance. \u00a0I watched from our front porch. \u00a0I never found out what happened to the man. \u00a0I hope he was all right.<\/p>\n
One hot summer day as I sat on our porch I saw a raccoon on the road in front of our house acting like it was drunk. Cars swerved to miss it and then they began to stop. \u00a0I think the raccoon was rabid. \u00a0I kept the children inside. \u00a0Someone came from animal control and took it away. \u00a0Oh, yes, porch sitting can become intense at times.<\/p>\n
David and I have been doing a lot of porch sitting this Summer. \u00a0Our new front porch is made for sitting and watching. \u00a0We watch the hummingbirds feed, a bird building her nest, the trucks going over the railroad tracks. \u00a0We watch friends and family pull into the drive for a visit. \u00a0 We watch when they leave and sit and talk about our visit. \u00a0You don’t have to do anything special to learn to porch sit. \u00a0Just sit on a chair, a swing, a rocker or whatever you have to sit on and start to pay attention to the world around you. \u00a0It’s pretty amazing what you will see. \u00a0The people you might meet. \u00a0The friendships you might cement. \u00a0Give it a try. \u00a0Bye.<\/p>\n
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We had a porch when I was growing up. \u00a0A big porch that wrapped all around the front of the house. \u00a0We roller skated on that porch with skates you needed a key in order to fasten them onto your shoes. I would swing on the porch swing while reading library books. \u00a0All the lazy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-things-on-my-mind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3494"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3498,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions\/3498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}