The Lost Art of Porch-Sitting

Front porch, U.S. 41, Cordele, Georgia

Canon EOS 5D Classic, 24-85 f3.5-4.5 EF lens 

 

 A traditional wraparound porch just north of downtown on U.S. Highway 41, the "main drag" through Cordele, Georgia. Now relegated to backroad status by nearby Interstate 75, Highway 41 and similar routes are showcases of an earlier time in America, and especially in the South, when the more affluent built their homes along the main streets of their towns, usually on the north or east side of downtown.

(An exception is Barnesville, Georgia, where the fine homes are mostly south of downtown along Thomaston Street in the Thomaston Street Historic District.) 

Once upon a time Southerners built gracious houses with wide, wraparound porches, often called verandahs. The porches helped keep their houses cool by preventing the sun from beaming directly in through the windows during the heat of the day, and in the evenings after a bit of breeze picked up, they were places to sit in rocking chairs and swings for leisurely chats with friends over tall glasses of ice tea. 

Air-conditioning and television ended all that. Nowadays porch-sitting is pretty much a lost art and we are poorer for the loss. 

(This post was adapted from my limited edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.) 

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(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone