ONE ANSWER TO AMERICA’S PROBLEMS

People are always coming up with ways to save America. Some of them sound pretty good, while others seem somewhat farfetched. The latest scheme I heard a few months ago was one I have been thinking about ever since: everyone who owns a home should add a front porch if they don’t already have one and start using it!

The idea was that if people had front porches and sat out on them, they would come to know their neighbors, and our country would then return to a nation of communities. Individuals would begin to be aware of others who were in need and would look after them. Consequently, America could go back to being like we were fifty years or so ago when we cared more for each other.

Of course, that is a gross oversimplification of the problems in our country, but the whole idea brought back memories. The house we grew up in had a pretty good sized front porch with a brick wall running around three sides of it. There were two steps leading up to an opening on one end opposite the front door. We girls spent many hours playing on this “extra room” of our house.

Once when we were little, we were playing a game that involved jumping off the front wall onto the ground below which had some bushes in front of it. I landed smack on a bush stub that poked into a spot near the top of one of my legs. Of course, I cried and Mother was upset with us for playing such a dangerous game. And of course, the older sisters got upset with me for ruining the game. I still have a round scar about ½ inch wide from that injury.

When we grew up and began dating, we sometimes spent time with our dates sitting on the glider “talking.” The genius remembers just such moments, he said, but he thought it was a swing.

Mother and Daddy liked to sit on the porch, which was furnished with this three seated glider and two metal chairs. All had nice cushions on them which we had to grab every time it rained and bring inside. Because we had no AC, it was much cooler to while away the evenings outside than to stay in the stuffy house. They sat in the dark because the lights on the porch and even in the living room attracted insects.

One night they were sitting out there and saw a teenaged boy walking down the street, and when he got to our house, he came on up into the yard. He got about half way to the house and one of my parents to be polite said, “Good evening.” With that, he took off running back up the street. Unfortunately for him, they knew exactly who he was because his Irish setter who went everywhere he did was with him. They never said a word to him; I’m sure he was mortified to be caught doing what a lot of boys his age did that day and time: try to get a peek in an open window at one of three teenaged girls in a state of undress.

But back to the idea of front porches for everyone: the more I think about the idea the more I like it, but I’m not sure the rest of America would agree. Now that most everyone has air conditioning, why should they fight the heat and the bugs to sit outside? We value our comforts too much.