Porches

Some fellow wrote once that he thought America started going down hill when we quit building front porches on our houses. He could be right.
The front porches of old were big with plenty of sitting space for neighbors. Folks would drop by with a plate of cookies to talk a spell about families, weather, politics. We knew their ups and downs next door, and they knew ours. We laughed, and sometimes, cried together. But over the years we’ve gotten more private, self centered. We got busy. Some folks can't even tell you their neighbors names. We stopped sitting on our front porches.
We quit building porches on the front and built decks instead. We've sorta become folks with our backs turned to our communities. Literally.
Now everyone knows my favorite sitting spot is my back porch lookin over the fields. And everyone is welcome to come by and sit and talk. Or just sit. But across America, I kinda wish they'd start building front porches again. I think we all could use a cookie.