Home Sweet Home

I like front porches. I have a front porch but it's not "that" kind of porch. My front porch is covered in steel and vinyl and it is not 'inviting'. I do have a sun porch that is comfortable and invites visitors to sit and stay for awhile. But the old-fashioned porch of the 1940s and 50s is a rarity. My husband;s grandmother had one. Her house was a classic 'bungalow' style and faced the main road in town. The traffic could be annoying at night when you were trying to sleep but on a lazy summer afternoon it was a comfortable place to sit and watch the world go by. Neighbors out for a stroll or walking their dogs; all stopped to say a few words and remark on the weather. There were no strangers in this era.

When did we begin to enclose those porches with screens? Eventually the porches shrank until they were little more than a stoop with no room for a chair. Living rooms became larger to accommodate the ever-increasing size of new forms of entertainment like television. While our horizons became broader and began to include the world more and more, our local connections disappeared. My husband's grandmother knew the names of everyone on her street and probably two or three streets down. She knew who was getting married, who was expecting a child, what grade the kids were in and she never met a stranger. I know a few of the residents in my neighborhood, but most are strangers and we have lived here for 11 years.

I think the front porch has become a symbol for a kinder, gentler time. I filled this one with warm light to infuse it with a romantic and nostalgic feeling. I added a cat because I love cats.