Front Porch Views

Remember when houses that we're built came with a front porch?  Usually front porches came with a couple of folding lawn chairs and if you upgraded you had rocking chairs.  But that was it.  No piped music, small refrigerator, fire-bowl, matching table and chairs, flat screen TV, electric awning, hot tub...just a couple of chairs.

People said you could sit on your front porch and watch the world go by.  Well at least the neighbors would go by.  You'd say "hi" to each other and maybe they'd walk up the sidewalk and visit for a bit.  Conversation would be about local events, the high school football team, gardens, flowers, and just general gossip.  People would drive by in their cars and honk and wave.  If it was a quiet evening you listened to the birds singing, the neighborhood kids laughing and playing, and an occasional bark from a dog.  Adults would sip from a cup of coffee and kids, well if you were lucky, some pop.  Hey the front porch WAS the original NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH program.

That in a nutshell was life on the front porch.  Except if you lived in northern Iowa.  Then there were many months of the year it was just too cold and too much snow to sit on any porch.  Maybe that's what drove up the value of the front porch.  You really looked forward to being out on it when Spring arrived.

But then something tragic happened to the front porch.  House developers thought it would be a good idea to move the porch to the back of the house and build a "privacy fence" around us.  The privacy fence would offer seclusion from all other life forms.  We could have our privacy!  Thanks goodness no pressure to have to talk to anyone, get to know our neighbors, and watch the world.  Did you know that if you go just 2 houses any direction from where you live there's a good chance you don't know your neighbors?  That is sad.
And when did we start talking about the "office" in our home??  Really? (I'll save that for another time).

I hear people on average a couple of times a week asking what is going on in this world?  Why are people they way they are?  Why can't we get along?  I'll tell you why.  No front porch!  We don't 'talk' to each other any more.  We 'text', we 'e-mail', we 'Twitter' but we DON'T talk to each other.  All the other is superficial.   Useful...yes...but when we lose human contact folks, we're all in trouble.

One Minute Devotion from Guidepost

On our 20th wedding anniversary, my husband walked in the door with a dozen red roses.  I went to the living room cabinet for a vase and saw several of our wedding gifts sitting on the shelf-china, crystal, silver-as though they were museum pieces.  "We'll save them for a special occasion," I'd told Bob.  But in 20 years, we'd hardly used them.  Most of the time they sat waiting on that shelf.  Well, if this isn't a special occasion, I thought, I don't know what is.


Reaching for that vase, I thought of other gifts I might have stowed away, waiting for just the right moment.  Like my gift for music.  I hadn't sung in the church choir in years; I always said I was too busy.  But just like those wedding gifts, weren't God's gifts meant to be used and enjoyed?

That night we set the table with our best tablecloth, our silver flatware, and a cut-crystal vase filled with red roses.  The kids especially enjoyed drinking sparkling juice from etched crystal goblets that they'd never before seen on our dinner table.  We laughed as the four of us clinked our glasses together.  "Let's do this more often," my daughter said.

"We will," I replied, as I made a mental note to go to choir practice that week.  After all, if every day is a gift from God, then all of life is a special occasion.

BIG BLOG BONANZA

Here it is..the BIG BLOG BONANZA trivia question.  The right answer wins you a McDonald's gift card.
"Which city in the United States has the most churches?"
You can post your answer on my Facebook page.

"They Said It" Quotes to Live & Learn By

"The secret of making something work in our lives if first of all, the deep desire to make it work; then the faith and belief that it can work; then hold that clear definite vision in your consciousness and see it working out step by step, without one thought of doubt or disbelief."

---Eileen Caddy

"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting."

---E.E. Cummings

"A positive thinker does not refuse to recognize the negative, he refuses to dwell on it.  Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions."

---Norman Vincent Peale

"We should say to each child; Do you know what you are?

You are a marvel.  You are unique...

You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven.

You have the capacity for anything."

---Pablo Casals

One Minute Devotion from Guidepost

My eyes were locked on my computer screen, watching a stock that I was preparing to sell for a client.  The stock's three-letter symbol was green, indicating that it was up for the day.  Three clicks on the keyboard and the stock was sold.  Amazing, I said to myself.  Technology is truly amazing.
Thirteen years ago, when I started out as an investment adviser, we didn't rely on e-mail, much less the Internet.  When I bought or sold a stock for a client, I had to write out a ticket, walk across the office and stamp it, and hand it to out trader, who entered it in a box that was the size of a microwave.  Now, with my laptop, I could access billions of pieces of information and send emails to anyone in the world with just the click of a button.
As i sat at my desk, pondering the mysteries of the Internet, my eyes fell on a note I'd made for myself: Pray for Harrison at 1:00p.m.  I'd promised my six-year old son that I'd pray for hi while he was taking his spelling test.
I closed my door and hit the compose button on my email.  "Hey God," I typed, "Harrison's spelling test will start in a few minutes.  I hope You can hang close to him and that he'll feel You near."  I could imagine my words flying straight to God's ears faster than any email.
Funny thing, technology.  As amusing as it is, it doesn't come close to the speed-of-light communication that's been available to humankind since time began.

BIG BLOG BONANZA

Here it is and good luck with your knowledge of American history.  "Abraham Lincoln was in all likelihood America's greatest president.  But just how many times was this famous president buried?"

Front Porch Views

Let me welcome you to a new series of stories and articles entitled "Front Porch Views".  When I was a kid growing up in Webster City, Iowa I spent many days sitting on the steps of our front porch at 308 East Dubuque Street.  It was from that front porch that I could see my world going by.  At that time the world was pretty small and life simple.  I dreamed about the year 2000 and would figure how old I would be when that year rolled around.  Boy has my view from then to now changed.  There was no thought of cable TV, cellphones, Internet, computers, etc.  Gosh we had a black and white TV that took on a good day 10 minutes to warm up!  And then you were limited to three channels to choose from.
Life was much less hectic and complicated.  It was what we call today the "little things" that were "big things" then.  And with "Front Porch Views" I hope to share with readers some personal memories of those "little things" and how they might help all of us keep life in perspective today.  So read on and enjoy.  Go back to your 'front porch' and remember those times that made you happy.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
A friend of mine who knows that I'm an adventure runner mentioned that "hey it's getting nice and about time for you to start running outside again this year."  "Yep" I replied, "I need to go get my new shoes for this season."  You see runners like me research our shoes.  I'll buy magazines like Runner's World and Trailrunner to read their shoe reviews.  They cover everything from comfort to stability, grip, color, are they shoes with zips laces or regular laces, what's the toebox like, are they built with GoreTex, and the list goes on and on. To say that runners are very particular about their shoes in an understatement.  It's serious business in a silly sort of way.
It was then that I remembered sitting on my front porch as a kid.  Each year when school was out for the summer Mom would buy my sister and I a pair of new tennis shoes.  The anticipation was overwhelming.  NEW TENNIS SHOES!!  Let's see high tops or low tops?  Duh only geeks wear high tops.  Black, red or white?  Red...red was cool.  Keds or Converse?  Hands down Converse...little kids wear Keds.  Oh and the shoes were canvas...period.  That's all there was.  I think we went either to local shoe store on Main Street USA or maybe Montgomery Wards...whoever had the best deal.  My mother probably spent less than $10 for both pairs together.  But NEW TENNIS SHOE DAY was the coolest day of the year!  I loved NEW TENNIS SHOE DAY.  When you put on your new tennis shoes one of the first things you did was show your friends.  Then you went to see just how fast you could run and how high you could jump.  This was living and life just didn't get any better.
Well its time to go get my new specialized Trail Running Shoes for this season.  My mother would have a fit if she knew that I will easily spend $100 or more for these shoes than $5  for the 1964 canvas Converse.
But one thing won't change.  I'll still be the coolest kid on the block with my new shoes.  I'll show them to family and friends.  I'll lace them up and go see how fast I can run and how far I can jump.  Hey a guy can dream...or with NEW TENNIS SHOES reminiscence.  It really is a simple thing...shoes.  Little did I know sitting on my front porch back then that shoes would still make me happy even today.