As often happens in this kind of storm in the Midwest, it passed quickly, and when the sun peeked through the clouds we all went to the sidewalk to look eastward for a rainbow.[9]
As we went back into the house, my visiting friend said, “You know, we’ve lived in our house for more than 20 years and you just talked to your neighbors more in that 15 minutes than we have in the whole time we’ve lived there.”
Such is the enchantment[10] of front porches and swings.
I remember reading once that Henry Ford not only took credit for changing the American roadway system and revolutionizing the way people live and work,[11] but also for actually changing the architecture of American homes. Because the family no longer sat on the front porch at the end of the day waiting for dear old Dad to trek home from the bus stop or streetcar after work, the front porch became obsolete.[12]
My own kids have heard the story too many times of how I grew up in a house without air conditioning and how my parents and I spent too many hot summer nights sitting on a glider[13] on the front porch, listening to the radio broadcast of a baseball game coming through an open window. I’m very pleased my kids grew up in a house with a front porch, sitting on the swing, albeit with the windows closed, so as not to let the A/C out.[14]
When my wife and I first looked at this house, the front porch and the swing were among the most attractive features. I envisioned[15] our future family sitting on the swing, doing nothing more than watching the neighborhood go by. And that’s what we did. Over the years, we sat on the porch swing while our three daughters ran through the sprinkler in the front yard or chased lightning bugs across the neighbors’ lawns.[16] We talked to the neighbors as they sat on their porch swings, storm or no storm. The view never changed, the ride was always the same. But that was enough.
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