On front porches

[sirvaliantbrown]

Some of this is overwrought, and some of it I disagree with. But it's about the value and meaning of the front porch, and I found it interesting.

http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=707

 

[old_tony]

Very interesting.

As someone who grew up in houses with front porches and now notices the complete lack of them in newer suburban neighborhoods, it is true that neighborhoods don't seem as close.

Then again, even in the old neighborhoods with older houses that have front porches, do people sit on them any more?

The last house I grew up in and moved out of before my parents eventually sold it had a front porch, but no one really ever sat out on it.

 

[HorseWhipped]

We all used to sit on the front porch at Grandma's house, little rural town, and just watch the cars go by.

Wave to the people if we knew them, wave maybe if we didn't. The main thing was that we would just sit there with our loved ones and pretend that we were watching the world go by, waving at the traffic on that little road to nowhere, but the real point was that we were so happy just to sit there with our loved ones of three and four generations, see what we would talk about before we had to wave again.

Special times, and they are all gone now.

I would give anything to be back in that little dirt town, sitting on the porch, waving at cars while waiting to see who stops by next, or just waiting to hear what Grandma or Pops or anyone else wants to talk about next.

Those days were unconditional love at its finest.

 

[Football_Bat]

Porches are coming back architecturally, at least at many of the new houses being built in my 'hood. People like porches and are asking for them in the blueprints. So some good news.

 

[KJIM]

Then again, even in the old neighborhoods with older houses that have front porches, do people sit on them any more?

When I go back to my hometown to visit my best friend in her "established" neighborhood, we sit on he front porch for hours and drink sweet tea. And for her neighborhood, that's par for the course. Everyone knows each other and they look out for one another (and pets that go missing).

So yes, in some places, they are still used.

 

[Moderator1]

The one thing I insisted on when we built this house was a front porch. Length of the house. Eight feet wide. Love it but I don't sit on it as much as I used to.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Or, it could just be that porches add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new house.

My little neighborhood had plenty of patios and few porches, and yet we had a pretty good community. I think it had more to do with a lot of people with kids of similar age going to the same school than porches.

 

[I Digress]

The big, old house I grew up in had a big, square, concrete porch with half-brick walls. Man, we roller skated on it, when we were tiny, skates with metal wheels that you put on over your shoes and adjusted with a key. And I spent much of my adolescence in a lawn chair, feet hiked up on the wall reading.
We had a little picnic table and my neighbor and I spent countless hours playing Monopoly. We played so much, it was like speed Monopoly.. knew all the prices and never really talked, just zoomed through a game, hotels and all, in 30 minutes or so. We were doing that one day when we had an earthquake. Little one. Didn't feel it. But we ended up stopping the game and staring at each other because nature had gone completely silent. We found out when the news came on that it was because of the quake, which are very rare in that part of Ohio.
We cooked out on the porch, too. I can remember my grampa had a little rotisserie thing that he would cook drummettes in.
And then after, we'd sit on the steps. Dad put the ice cream maker on the big, flat piece of concrete just below the steps and we'd crank it and crank it, sticking our fingers in the hole that allowed the melting ice to escape and lick the salty water. We'd top that with the homemade ice cream.
I would kill to have a porch again.

 

[JR]

The better article on the subject--which doesn't degenerate into conservative hokum--is the Richard Thomas piece that's linked in the second paragraph. The growth of the post-war suburb was partially a result of people's desire to achieve privacy, something the front porch didn't provide, either in larger urban centres or smaller rural communities.

Porches haven't been part of North American domestic architecture in at least sixty or seventy years, and going back even further to the emergence of the distinctive American school of architecture with people like Wright or Sullivan.

Now developers thrown them on to the front of houses now in an attempt to tap into some sort of faux nostalgia

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

lol the guy who wrote that article also has a 4,000-word screed on that site about the decline of the use of ... the fork?

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Our house has a wrap around front porch with a porch swing... That swing is my favorite piece of furniture.
I love sitting outside in it, sucking down iced tea, gently swinging on it.
Had a priest a few years ago who relayed something he was told about the decline of neighborhoods being due the invention of air conditioning.
Before AC, people had to sit outside, because it was usually much hotter in the house. So they would be outside, walking or sitting... this encouraged socialization. Now, instead of being out in high 80-degree weather, dealing with bugs and what not, we can sit in our climate controlled comfort zone.
I can see some logic in the thinking.

 

[JR]

lol the guy who wrote that article also has a 4,000-word screed on that site about the decline of the use of ... the fork?

He does? I couldn't find it .

Or are you being a smartass?

 

[User 1019]

The front porch at the house I grew up in was and is still used just about as much as any room in the house. I don't think it had anything to do with the neighborhood, though. We didn't have one; our nearest neighbor was almost just under a mile away.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

lol the guy who wrote that article also has a 4,000-word screed on that site about the decline of the use of ... the fork?

He does? I couldn't find it .

Or are you being a smartass?

Just click on the home page on that site. It's the featured story.

 

[ServeItUp]

We had a front porch that my dad screened in along about daylight saving time every year. There was a screen door and then two door-sized screens on either side. We also had a front porch swing, and because we lived on the main street of town our house was the place to be for parades (Memorial Day and Labor Day). When my dad replaced the wooden stairs with brick and concrete, I learned you could get the baseball to bounce funky when you threw it off them; never helped my defense much, though.

And then when we switched our clocks back he took the screens down because we weren't using it as much. I remember how the snow would fly in there and drift the front door shut and cover the furniture; we walked out the back door when we headed off for school or work.

The Front Porch Song
Robert Earl Keen/Lyle Lovett

This old porch is a big ol' red and white Hereford bull
Standin' under a mesquite tree in Agua Dulce, Texas
He keeps on playin' hide and seek with that hot August sun
Sweatin' and a pantin' cause his work is never done
Oh no, with those cows and a red top cane

This old porch is a steamin' greasy plate of enchiladas
With lots of cheese and onions and a guacamole salad
You can get them at the LaSalle Hotel in old downtown
With ice tea and a waitress who will smile every time
Oh yeah, I left a quarter tip on my ten dollar bill

This old porch is a palace walk in on a main street in Texas
It ain't never seen or heard the days of G's and R's and X's
And that '62 poster that's almost faded down
And a screen without a picture since Giant came to town
Oh no, I like those junior mints and the red hots too, yes I do

This old porch is like a weathered grey haired seventy years of Texas
Who’s doin' all he can not to give in to the city
And he always takes my rent late so long as I run his cattle
He picks me up at dinner time and I listen to him rattle

He says the Brazos still runs muddy like she's run all along
There’s never been no cane to grind and the cotton's all but gone
You know this Chevrolet pickup truck, hell she was somethin' back in '60
But now there won't nobody listen to him 'cause they all think he's crazy

This old porch is just a long time of waiting and forgetting
Remembering the coming back and not crying about the leaving
And remembering the falling down and the laughter of the curse of luck
From all those sons of ******* who said we'd never get back up

This old porch is a big old red and white Hereford bull
Standing under a mesquite tree out in Agua Dulce
He keep's on playing hide and seek with that hot August sun
He’s sweating and a panting 'cause his work is never done
I've know a whole lot of bulls in my time, and their work is never done.

 

[JR]

lol the guy who wrote that article also has a 4,000-word screed on that site about the decline of the use of ... the fork?

He does? I couldn't find it .

Or are you being a smartass?

Just click on the home page on that site. It's the featured story.

Wow. That guy needs to check his meds.

 

[micropolitan guy]

My childhood home had a nice front porch, with about seven steps from the sidewalk. We'd sit out on the steps and watch the cars and peolpe drive by, and we knew half of them because it was a small town.

No fron porch on most of the houses on my Microville cul-de-sac, but once the weather starts cooperating it seems we all meet up at the clusterbox or just grab a chair, a couple beers and and sit on someone's lawn.

Of course, there's a light snowfall this AM ...

 

[JR]

Of course, there's a light snowfall this AM ...

So much for that nice 17C weather from last week, eh?

One day you're walking around in shorts--for one day--and then you've got your Arctic gear back on.

 

[finishthehat]

Haven't read the story, but it kinda ties in to a quote in the Times this weekend from Pete Hamill in a story about the few bars left in NY without TVs.

He said when he left for the Navy in 1952, everyone would spend the evenings outside on the stoop (the urban equivalent of the porch). By the time he came back in 1955, everyone was inside watching TV.

 

[slappy4428]

The one thing I insisted on when we built this house was a front porch. Length of the house. Eight feet wide. Love it but I don't sit on it as much as I used to.

We have a small stoop and I've told Ms. Slappy that if we ever can afford it, we're expanding the porch to make it a sittin' porch...