I love our porch at 605. The sitting. The people-watching. The squirrel-watching. The $.99 Goodwill side table. The hoping-to-see-the-hairless cat-watching. The banter. We also love to wander the neighborhood and gawk at all the beautiful summer-friendly porches and lovely lazy seating arrangements, but we hardly ever see any people. Why don’t people use their porches more? I was theorizing that it was because people have migrated to their more secluded backyard decks and patios where they can sip a cold one and gossip with more privacy. Maybe, but Chris thinks people have migrated to their flat screens inside. Sad, but probably true. What do you think?
Even though our porch is one of my favorite parts of 605, it doesn’t stop me from having a bit of porch envy.
This Baltimore porch has me panting. Grey with a pop of orange, yes! Maybe it’s door envy? Whatever you call it, I’m inspired.
I think Chris nailed it. BTW, the disappearance of front porches is theorized to be an indirect result of the advent of the automobile – prior to its instant mobility, people walked more, and visited more – front porches were used as summertime sitting rooms. Autos allowed people to visit other people far away, and people started using the inside of homes rather than the outside. Atleast that’s part of what I remember from one of my history courses (history of the automobile) I took many moons ago.
Thanks for the history on it. It makes perfect sense!
Spot on! Mutti should be an urban planning professor. Sigh – I would love to live somewhere with grand front porches and people sitting there, slowly enjoying life. Maybe you can start a porch revival in your neighborhood?
Gore, maybe your new neighborhood in Milwaukee??