rockin and , well, rockin

I love front porches

     When I was a kid, growing up on the hard streets of the big city, we lived in an apartment building with a big porch.  When I was in sixth or seventh grade, my folks bought a house across the street with a big  porch.  There was a side part and a large front area, so it was  shaped like an L on its side.
     (Digression.  The house initially scared the bejeebees out of me!  The patriarch of the family that lived their died, and the wake was held in the house.  I looked down from my parents' apartment and saw Mr. Kennedy asleep. but he wasn't on the couch!!  He was in a box!!  Not being a particularly bright kid, I did not not understand why so many people were visiting him and he wouldn't wake up!     When I finally realized it was a visitation, I thought his ghost would haunt the house, mocking me.  It never did.)
      I loved the porch.  Part of it was screened in and on those hot summer nights, I would go onto the porch and sleep in an old chaise lounge.  This lounge was iron with springs and a think mattress.  It had a very comforting feel and smell.  I keep thinking I will find one like it some day, but that was a long time ago.
     On rainy days I would stand on the porch and feel the rain hit my face, pretending I was a pirate on the front of a ship.
     I would sit on the porch and talk to neighbors as they went past.
     During high school, friends would come over and we'd sit on the steps and talk, laugh at the adults in our world, and in general be obnoxious teens.
     I went to NIU, and was home for some reason and sitting on the porch when classes at my old high school let out.  As girls walked by I would say, "Hello.   I am home from college.  Yes, that's right, I'm a college man."
     But they were not interested in a pimply faced kind of dopey little guy with a strange sense of style...or lack of it.
     I brought Jackie to the folks' house one night and we were just sitting on the front steps.  Within 30 minutes a small group of people had joined us and we just kept telling stories.  Jackie has a rather unusual laugh, and at on point, about 11:30 if I remember, she started laughing so hard she sounded like an air raid siren going off!
     I think front porches have a big role in creating neighborhoods.  Backyard patios are nice, but you don't see your neighbors, don't say hello, don't visit.  I think I knew everyone in the houses near my parents on both sides of the street, because people would pass and say hello.
     I got to thinking of all that today when I was sitting on my front porch, listening to the rain.
     Standing by the railing, feeling the mist hitting my face, I was transported back in time.
     Back to when I was a pirate on the deck of a ship.
     It felt good to go home for a while.  And no ghosts were around either.