August 14, 2012
I don’t have a porch. I have a deck, which is quite lovely, but it’s not a porch. From my deck you can’t see anything but a garden and the back yard. Which makes it quite private, but sometimes privacy can be highly overrated.
I want a porch. I’ve wanted one ever since I was a child of six or so and visited Aunt Did, who lived in Beaufort, South Carolina. Aunt Did’s house had a big ol’ porch, with rocking chairs and something called a “jostling board.”
Photo by Mr. T in DC
A jostling or joggling board is a South Carolina low country invention. It’s a springy board between two stands. Grownups actually allow children to bounce on a jostling board. Like Tigger.
Pretty cool, huh? I wish I’d had a jostling board when my kids were little, it would have saved the living room furniture. My kids were both very bouncy.
I understand that jostling boards are coming back into style. Hooray! But, really, a jostling board needs to go on a porch. And I live in a 1950s tract house. It’s a very nice house, but it has no porch.
Aunt Did’s porch was amazing. It wrapped around her house almost all the way. It provided a view of a busy street, and you could keep tabs on what the folks next door were up to, which, for a child with an active imagination was almost better than television.
The porch was roomy. You could play on that porch and stay cool and connected. My mother told stories of cutting “paper dolls” out of the Sears Roebuck catalog and staging elaborate weddings on Aunt Did’s porch back in the 1930s. A porch has some impressive landscape in a child’s eye.
When I got older I discovered the joy of reading in a rocking chair on the front porch at my Aunt Miriam’s river house. It was screened in, and there was always an electric fan going. It was cool out there on the porch. And I could fly away to strange and interesting places. I read Tolkein’s entire Ring Trilogy one summer and hardly budged out of the rocking chair on that porch, except to go swimming.
I think my love of porches is one of the reasons that every house in Last Chance, South Carolina, seems to come with one. If I can’t have a real porch in my suburban neighborhood, well then, I’ll just make up a place where everyone has a front porch. And, of course, everyone is keeping an eye on their neighbor – for better and worse.
Being a writer is fun that way. You can order the world to your liking.
So, do you have a porch? Post a picture of it so I can enjoy it vicariously. If not, let me know your favorite summer hang out.
What if Bubba Ran The Olympics
August 6, 2012
So, like just about everyone, I’ve spend a lot of couch potato time this past week watching the Olympics. Of course I love swimming, gymnastics, and track. These seem like perfectly legitimate sports. And I’ve streamed a lot of sailing because, well, I was once a sailor and I get all tingly watching those men and women tack and jibe.
But then we get to the other stuff . . . like ping pong.
I’m open minded. I can see that ping pong is the national sport of some countries. But my dear husband, who is a sports fan with good ol’ boy tendencies, scoffs at ping pong. Don’t get him started on rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, or water polo.
If he were in charge of the Olympics he’d add a new event called – the Good Ol’ Boy Decathlon, with the following events:
Competitive Fishin’
by TownePost Network
Lawn Tractor Racin’
Photo © Fir 0002/Wikimedia Commons
Mud hole Swimin’
Watermelon Eatin’
Photo by Kelly -- Simply Kelly Blog
Competitive Barbecue Lightin’
photo by Bitterjug
Plain Ol’ Huntin’
Photo by WaterfowlHunter7
Synchronized Cowboy Dancin’
(Okay, the DH doesn’t want to see this but I do.)
Photo by by dbking
Gator wrestlin’
© 0tvalo | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos
Monster Truck Auto Mashin’
Wikimedia Commons, Luc Viatour
Sling Slot Shootin’
Were you the High School Prom Queen?
June 18, 2012
Neither was I! High school may have been my awkward stage but I’ve come a long way, baby.
Was your hair big? Your dress disco? Your date a bit nerdy? Or was there romance in the air?
I’ve partnered with Romantic Times for a great prom photo giveaway. To participate, share your prom photo with me. Post your photo in a comment right here, and I’ll choose two lucky winners to receive a $25 Sephora gift card and a copy of Last Chance Beauty Queen.
Winning photos will be posted at RT on Friday, June 29th. And if that prom date is now your husband, RT and I both want to know…
