I'm reading Dandelion Wine for my book club next month and while the whole thing is a coming of age/ childhood journey, the part I read yesterday included a part about front porches in their small town.

Our front porch of childhood was in a small town, but not one like in the old movies that was connected by sidewalks, ours was next to a busy road. That didn't stop its magnetic powers - both for us and our neighbors and relatives driving by in cars. They'd see us out and stop to chat - as a matter of fact, if we noticed family going by without at least a brief stop it was considered strange. And the neighbors would wander over on warm summer nights just to share the evening.

Why did we sit on our front porch? Well probably for lots of reasons, but the first being coolness. No a/c other than the breezes fanned by our Norway maples in the front yard. And secondly, entertainment. No TV to nail our souls to the indoors. Our family made games of everything and we would count cars - makes of cars. Everyone would take a model. Today I would be hard pressed to recognize anything but a VW bug!! But in those days it was American-built all the way and not that many choices. But we watched and watched the flow of cars, the dances of fireflies in the gathering dusk, the sun setting across the fields. All of this brought the activities of the day down, down, down to a peaceful level - to prepare for the night. When it was finally dark, many a night was capped off with a dish of ice cream and pretzels on the side - always the sweet/salt combo.

Nothing of significance happened on that porch ..... yet, everything did.