I love porches and decks and while growing up we always had a porch or a deck....but my first front porch experience is what I believe placed this love in me.
When I was a two my parents rented an apartment in a former "mansion" which had been made into four apartments. It was the Snyder House on Snyder Hill in Port Allegany. We lived upstairs in the larger of the two upstairs apartments. The house had a huge porch on two sides and the four families would sometimes all come out on the porch and talk on those warm summer evenings. I remember watching one newly wed couple as they worked at carving their initials in the middle of a heart in a birch tree. (I also love birch trees!) I was sorta worried it was going to do something to the tree as I had been told not to strip the paper thin bark of the birch tree, but that heart was there for many year. We moved out when I was 8 and it was still there when I moved into that very same apartment when I was 22 years old after graduating from college....it was still there! Several years ago I noticed the tree was gone, probably the victim of old age or blight....I was sad.
There are so many memories of that place burned into my memory. I remember vividly how I hated my bed time was so early (7:30 in summer!) and I would be in bed right above the porch listening to the adults laughing and talking below. I never heard too much as I usually fell asleep about the time my head hit the pillow.(...still do.) It was such a good feeling and there was a real sense of belonging. It was a happy time. Some tenants had kids and some didn't. Many of the tenants were new school teachers or other professionals new to our little town. Before they would find a home to purchase or a lot to build a home on, they would move to Snyder hill. Consequently, my mom became friends with several school teachers wives and her best friend was the wife of a town architect. (Mom and Susie were preganant together in the apartment and Lori and Jennifer grew up to be best friends.)
When I was a two my parents rented an apartment in a former "mansion" which had been made into four apartments. It was the Snyder House on Snyder Hill in Port Allegany. We lived upstairs in the larger of the two upstairs apartments. The house had a huge porch on two sides and the four families would sometimes all come out on the porch and talk on those warm summer evenings. I remember watching one newly wed couple as they worked at carving their initials in the middle of a heart in a birch tree. (I also love birch trees!) I was sorta worried it was going to do something to the tree as I had been told not to strip the paper thin bark of the birch tree, but that heart was there for many year. We moved out when I was 8 and it was still there when I moved into that very same apartment when I was 22 years old after graduating from college....it was still there! Several years ago I noticed the tree was gone, probably the victim of old age or blight....I was sad.
There are so many memories of that place burned into my memory. I remember vividly how I hated my bed time was so early (7:30 in summer!) and I would be in bed right above the porch listening to the adults laughing and talking below. I never heard too much as I usually fell asleep about the time my head hit the pillow.(...still do.) It was such a good feeling and there was a real sense of belonging. It was a happy time. Some tenants had kids and some didn't. Many of the tenants were new school teachers or other professionals new to our little town. Before they would find a home to purchase or a lot to build a home on, they would move to Snyder hill. Consequently, my mom became friends with several school teachers wives and her best friend was the wife of a town architect. (Mom and Susie were preganant together in the apartment and Lori and Jennifer grew up to be best friends.)
There was communal garden also. It was divided into fours and each of the families grew their favorite veggies. One year we all had so many DELICIOUS tomatoes we didn't know what to do with them....(although my mom figured out something and I will write about that on another blog.) That garden is why I love peas in their pods....RAW. (English peas for you southerners.....didn't know there were other kinds of peas until I moved here.)
Elderberries grew all around the porch and I will never forget getting into trouble using those berries to stain the gray porch floor purple. I enlisted the help of many of the younger kids in the house and we all thought the lovely shade of purple greatly improved the porch. We were so surprised there was not one adult who was grateful for all of our hard work....but instead we were all punished. I wasn't allowed to play outside for several days.
It wasn't until years later that I realized most kids didn't live in apartment buildings. I had never thought much about it the whole time I lived there that we didn't have our own home. It was just where I lived. The grounds around the house had a lot of great climbing trees and I always felt like I lived in the neatest house in town.....it certainly had the best front porch!
2 comments:
Growing up in the South, I too loved porches. Before the day of everyone having AC, many a summer evening was spent on the front porch. I especially loved screened porches-no mosquito bites and still outside. We have lost a wonderful thing of the past with our TVs and ACs,in my opinion.
One wiser than I (my father) credits air conditioning with the death of neighborly behavior, courtesy, and many more kindnesses.
The front porch was where you talked. Not talked "to" someone particularly as you can do that on the phone, but you talked for basic entertainment. No TV, video games, etc. You sat outside (and yes, sweated) and enjoyed your family and your neighborhood.
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