Porch Sittin'

Mark Twain doin' some serious Porch Sittin'

Thanks to Kent Burke for recommending "Porce Sittin'" on our Facebook Wall:

"Thank you for a profoundly dull website. Has anyone out there explored the dullness of front porch sittin'? It's been a passion — without excitement of course — for many years and I highly recommend it."

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Porch sitting, once part of practically everyone's life in the summer, has been been fading away for a long time now.

But, if you find a place to do it, it is most enjoyable. It's a fine form of Safe Excitement; we'll be adding it to our Safe Excitement section.

The demise of porch sitting is due to:

Air conditioning. People no longer need to sit out on the porch on summer evenings to sit in air that cooler than inside the house.
"Decks." Many front porches have been replaced by "decks" on the backsides of houses.
TV. People would rather sit inside to TV than sit outside to watch the world going by.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in 1974, ran an interesting little article about this:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=L4BIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XW0DAAAAIBAJ&dq=porch-sitting%20air-conditioning&pg=2072%2C408291

The info set out above if mostly from Wikipedia, and there's more there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porch_sitting

Comments (2)

2Tuesday, 23 August 2011 11:14

Don

My wife and I bought a house 3 years ago primarily because it had a good front porch. We have been sitting on it as much as possible. No need to talk to each other...an occasional "hello" to a neighbor walking by. Hot, warm , cold, cool...we still find a way for some porch sittin. It refreshes the mind, helps mend the soul and is a great way to do nothing...we love it

1Sunday, 14 August 2011 13:48

Grigori one

cool air

sunrise

leaves in the wind

clouds disappearing in the sky

a long pleasant yawn

lines of ants

birds on the fence

the warm setting sun making the sky orange

full moon in a dimly lit outback town

what a day

what a night

what a wonderful dull existence