IF THE WORLD HAD A FRONT PORCH

I was returning from a camping/fishing trip one day recently and decided to drive by where the farmhouse I was born in on my Grandma and Grandpa’s farm once stood. The house, the old barn, the smokehouse, the chicken coop, and the outhouse were no longer there. They were torn down many years ago.

I got out of my truck and started walking around the bare land. There was nothing left that anyone would ever know this had once been a place where many happy memories were made. As I walked, I could see in my mind’s eye everything that was once there.

As I kept walking, I heard the sound of gurgling water. I walked up the hill behind where the old barn stood. The old spring I used to haul water for drinking, baths, and Grandma’s cooking was still there. We also stored milk from our Jersey cow named Daisy in its cold water. I filled my cupped hand with its water and sipped a drink just as I used to do many years ago.

On my way back to my truck, I stopped again where the old farmhouse had been. I remembered the big front porch. We spent lots of time there in every season but winter when I was a kid growing up. During the summer we spent time on that front porch at the end of the day after all the chores were done. There was no air conditioning back then. Even if there was, we had no electricity.

Grandpa would light a kerosene lantern and whittle on a piece of wood while smoking his pipe and sitting in his rocking chair. I still have that chair. Grandma would read her Bible by the light of the lantern, or mend clothing by hand with needle and thread.

Sometimes, on that front porch, I would skin squirrels, rabbits, a raccoon, or quail that I got with Grandpa’s old shotgun or from my trap line. Sometime I would clean frogs or fish.

Chickens would be walking around in the yard. Their dogs, Trixie and Blackie, would lay on the front porch worn out from their busy day chasing squirrels and rabbits. When I was younger, I would run around catching fireflies and put them in a Mason jar with holes in the lid. We listened to the sounds of whip-poor-wills and owls hooting.

It was hard to leave the memories that day, but we had church that night and I knew my wife would be waiting. I got back in my truck and started toward home. On the way, I passed by the town where I spent my teenage years after Grandpa died and we left the farm.

The old main street was still there but none of the businesses I remember back then. The cafe, drug store, hardware store, post office, barber shop, doctor’s office, and pool hall were no longer there.

South of Main Street was the school I attended for all twelve years. It was now used for offices for the school district. The high school is across town and a hundred times bigger than the one I attended. The Junior High and several elementary schools are scattered around the town. It had grown into a big city I hardly recognized. Fast food choices, shopping centers, and housing developments were everywhere.

I decided to drive by some of the old houses we lived in before I left to serve our country and start my own life. Driving through some of the old neighborhoods I could still recognize, I noticed the houses all had front porches like we did on the farm.

It was a time before televisions and computers dominated lives and kept people inside. A time before a porch in the front got much smaller and people built backyard patios or decks with tall, wooden fences around them. Today, most people don’t even know their neighbors on the other side of that fence. We stay in our little world.

It was a time when we did not worry about crime. It was a time when life did not seem so hectic and sometimes scary. I don’t think we were as busy back then. It was a time when people would sit on front porches reading the newspaper or the Bible, playing checkers, or talking face to face with each other instead of by smartphone.

 During Summer they would fan themselves and try to stay cool under the shade of the front porch. If neighbors or someone else were out walking or drove by and stopped, they were invited to sit on the front porch and enjoy a glass of tea or lemonade. Maybe even a bowl of homemade ice cream or a plate of sliced watermelon.

They enjoyed their front porches in the Spring as they watched flowers blooming and listened to birds singing. When Fall arrived they would sit on their front porch enjoying the colors of the leaves. Sometimes in Winter they were on their front porch watching the snow fall.

Women talked of kids and grandkids, what was happening at church, shared Bible verses, and showed off their flower or vegetable garden. Most of the men were World War II or Korean War veterans. There were always a few war stories shared. Politics was a topic of conversation but not like it is today in our divided nation.

There were times when I was a teenager and I would come walking by and was invited to sit with folks on their front porch. The women would ask how Mom, Dad, and my siblings were doing. They wanted to know if I was going to college after high school. They always asked me if I was going to church.

The men wanted to know how my basketball or baseball season was going. They would ask if I was going to join the military. They all knew I loved the outdoors and would share their memories of hunting and fishing stories with me.

They would also ask about my latest hunting and fishing adventures, of which there were many to tell them about. They knew I loved to go gigging for frogs on summer nights and would hint to me how much they liked fried frog legs, hoping I would offer to bring them some. They would also tell me how much they liked fried crappie and fried sucker fish. There were times I would take some of both to them. They loved it when I did that.

Later in life, my wife and I bought a cabin in the woods on a bluff. It had a front porch where we could see the creek below and the waterfall cascading down the hill. We spent many hours on that front porch enjoying family, friends, and hummingbirds.

When I think about it, some of my best memories came from sitting on front porches. Front porches from those years were where some of life’s greatest moments unfolded for me. I am sure when folks my age think about it they would probably say the same.

The idea for this story has been floating around in my head for quite some time. It started with a song by country singer Tracy Lawrence called If the World Had a Front Porch.

                       If the world had a front porch like we did back then,
                        we’d still have problems, but we’d all be friends.
                        Treatin’ your neighbor like he’s your next of kin,
                        wouldn’t be gone like the wind.
                        If the world had a front porch like we did back then.

Maybe, we need to get Democrats and Republicans together on a front porch. Maybe, we need to get leaders of other countries together on a front porch. We would probably still have some problems, but maybe we could all strive to be friends. It could help change the world before it is gone like the wind. If only, the world had a front porch like we did back then.