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| Our house has a large deck in front |
The house we live in today has a large deck on the front. Some have said how nice it is, which only illustrates their lack of understanding. The mosquito air force renders areas such as this mostly unusable during most of the warm-weather months. There is no shade to protect from a hot sun. Those are just two reasons why our deck is not used very often.
In 1947, my parents moved into a house with a screened porch. I remember sitting on that porch in the 50s. Once in a while someone would walk by our house at the edge of town. We’d always speak a greeting and almost always got one in return. Sometimes, the passerby would engage us in conversation for a while. It was great to sit there on the porch swing and enjoy watching the activities outside while listening to Mom hard at work inside the open door to the main house.
In the summer, we’d carry the large console radio out to the porch and listen to radio dramas in the evening to an accompaniment of crickets and katydids. We’d play outside during the day, but in the evening after supper, or on a rainy day, we sought the shelter of the screened porch.
Screened porches and porch swings were common back then. I don’t see them very often these days. TV has drawn people inside where they hunker in the bunker. Then there are those of us who are online. I could take my lap-top computer to the deck and surf from there, but why?
No, I don’t want to go back. That doesn’t work. Yet sometimes, I think of those days and remember how nice they were. Life was simpler, but it was also harder. Maybe I’ll go sit on the deck in the late afternoon. It should be warm enough for that if the forecaster is correct.
I loved that porch and swing. I don't remember ever saying I was bored and had nothing to do. There was always that swing, a glass of iced tea, and a good book. Or the cat from across the street who came for conversations with Mom.
I, too, have an unusable deck. The mosquitoes would carry me off if I went out for just half a minute. Saving my pennies to get it screened.
We used our deck a lot when we first built this house. Now, I just kind of forget it's there. Not sure why. I need to change that next summer.
Hey Man, I just wanted to thank ya for your visit and hoppin' on my blog. I sure hope ya'll enjoy the ride.
God bless and in the word of that wild and crazy Granny Clampett, "ya'll come back now, ya hear!!!"
'Cause you remember the good but not the bad. That's why nostalgia can be so dangerous. Or the bad gets muddled. Or you don't remember how bored you were or had "nothing to do Mom!"
We too have a great deck but seldom do we use it. It's a time factor with a big old workin' farm.
This Ozark Farm Chick remembers the porch on my Granny's farm. Many hours of my youth was spent on that screened in porch.
God bless ya from the busy hills and hollers of the Missouri Ponderosa!!! :o)
We lived on the screened porch at the lake place. Oh, the fun and games, sometimes a dozen people out there!
I don't want to "go back" but sometimes I think I just might trade this cocooned life-style for a nice screened porch and like-minded companions.
Maybe the secret is the "screened in" part. I'll bet you use it more if you put a little roof over that thing and screen it in. Then you can read, blog, nap, etc. and catch a sweet breeze at the same time.
We eat outside on our patio nearly every night in summer. It's just nice to mix up the routine a bit sometimes.