Front Porch Memories

I’m one of those people who love front porches. After all what’s not to love? This is the place where problems are solved, neighbors meet, first kisses happen and where children play make believe. I remember sitting on my grandparents’ front porches. One lived in a village and the other was on the outskirts of a small town.  My siblings and cousins would hang out there, hashing over the day’s events. One of my grandmother’s porches was the place where neighbors would drop by for an evening chat. My father was an avid baseball fan back and whenever there was a game being played you could in find him sitting on the front porch in his aluminum lawn chair with the transistor radio by his side. One of my most cherished front porch memories is of being a little girl and falling asleep in my second floor bedroom listening to Phil Rizzuto call the Yankees game on that radio.  

Front porches conjures up images of rocking chairs, American flags and Norman Rockwell’s America. As a matter of fact all but two of the houses my husband and I have owned have had front porches. Our current one was purchased solely on the merit of that portion of our home. The photo here shows what our porch looks like this year after we freshened it up with some ceiling pant and some new and repurposed furniture.  We love our porch and think of it as another room in our house! Many an evening you can find us there, reading the paper, enjoying a cup of tea or glass of wine and always waving to the cars as they drive by. We have family, friends and neighbors who will drop by for a visit and I like to think as much as they love visiting with us, that they are also coming so they can sit on our porch!

Now I realize that not everyone can have a front porch and that the front stoop is just as much an integral part of many a neighborhood…but for me the front porch is part of the fabric of my life.  Not surprisingly all of my books have front porch scenes written into the storyline. What’s your favorite front porch memory? 

An Amazon Top Ten bestselling romance author, Tracey sold her first book on 9/9/99! Tracey always wanted to be an actress but couldn’t get past her stage fright. Writing gives her the best of both worlds; she can act out the parts on the pages without ever having to go on stage! Tracey’s books have been translated into several languages. Tracey has appeared on the award winning Cox Cable Television show, Page One and at the famous Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC. She holds membership in Romance Writers of America, where she is the Past President of the Published Authors Special Interest Chapter and the founding President of the Capital Region RWA chapter. She is also a member of Novelists Inc.  Tracey writes historical romances under Tracey J Lyons and her Wine Country Vixens contemporary romance series using the pseudonym Tracey Sorel.  You can learn more about Tracey and her books by visiting her websites at www.traceylyons.com or www.traceysorel.com.