My Front Porch Has Changed, but Its Importance Hasn’t — The Front Porch

(Image credit: Dorothy Bendel)

Growing up, I couldn’t imagine the sun beating down more intensely anywhere else in the world than it did during those summers on Long Island. After an hour playing baseball in the street and shouting “CAR!” every 10 minutes, I would retreat to a folding chair on my front porch.

The porch wasn’t grand. It didn’t wrap around the house or include ceiling fans like I had seen in movies, but when the heat and ever-changing street sport rules became too much, I could remove myself from the game yet still keep close watch and shout from the comfort of my front porch.

I would eek open the front door and tiptoe into the house to grab an orange Fla-Vor-Ice pop from the pile of rainbow-colored treasures in our freezer. My siblings and I always fought over the orange ones. My grandmother had to dole them out like WWII rations. The blue ones were always the last to go, lingering among frozen microwave meals until someone got too hot to care what flavor it was supposed to be.

READ MORE »

from WordPress https://jonathanwilhoite.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/my-front-porch-has-changed-but-its-importance-hasnt-the-front-porch/