The Front Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind
If our old house could talk, I’m sure it would have lots to say, especially the front porch. Our home has been in my family for 105 years. Many folks, including great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, (great) aunts and uncles, cousins, and friends have passed the time of day in this simple but sacred space: talking and visiting, taking a rest after working in the fields or garden, enjoying a bit of cool air after a thunderstorm on a hot, sultry day, or just sitting—shelling peas into a colander.
As a child, I remember walking to Grandma’s house every morning in the summertime and finding her sweeping the front porch—something I do every morning now…..and always think of her. I have so many wonderful childhood memories of whiling away a Sunday afternoon practicing handstands and cartwheels in the front yard while family gathered and visited on the porch. Those Sundays were also comprised of sitting on the porch steps, listening to the grown-ups talking as Granddaddy Rieley rocked in the old, white (now black) rocking chair that Great-Granddaddy Rieley built. And, I especially remember looking forward to making homemade peach ice cream and Uncle Francis letting me turn the hand crank of the ice cream maker. But, I think my favorite memory of all is just sitting quietly, on any random summer evening with Grandma and Granddaddy, listening to the whip-poor-wills and crickets filling the night air with music.
These beloved childhood memories and the thought of music created by a “Cricket Band” reminded me of a children’s book my kindergarten students enjoyed having read to them at the end of their speech-language therapy sessions. It’s called Nicholas Cricket, and it’s written by Joyce Maxner. Ms. Maxner has degrees from Harvard University and Villanova University. As a poet, she has published in Tracks, Temple University’s literary magazine. I absolutely love her use of whimsical language as well as the rhythm and tempo of her writing. I also treasure how her words transport me, once again, into an 8-year-old girl porch sittin’ with her grandma and granddaddy, soaking up the simplicity and beauty of a summer evening in the country….entertained only by a concert of crickets.
Nicholas Cricket
Written by Joyce Maxner
Nicholas Cricket plays every night in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band.
Moonlight glows and summer wind blows,
rabbits come dancing on tip-tippy toes.
The music is just so grand!
Nicholas Cricket plays with all his might in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band.
Little Lake shines and Little Stream winds,
peep-peep-peepers come dancing through the vines.
The music is just so grand!
Nicholas Cricket is a banjo picker
in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band.
Crickets play fiddles and guitars with middles
curvy and round as a rantum riddle
and ducks come dancing
ducky-hey-ducky-diddle.
The music is just so grand!
In the blue blue night
when the moon is bright
underneath the leaves of summer,
if we’re quiet and quick
we can find Cricket Nick
and the washboard strummers
and slap-a-spoon drummers
and crick-crick-crickety kazoo hummers.
We can dance all night
’til the rosy dawn comes.
The music is just so grand!
Ladybugs strut and toads sashay,
moths and mantises wing their way,
while Nick and the crickets
just
play
and
play.
The music is just so grand!
Then all the Bug-a-Wugs grow sleepy and still
and go back with the moonlight under the hill.
Back to the trees the peepers pop,
back to the hollow the rabbits hop,
back to the willows the weary ducks waddle
and back to our beds our tired legs toddle
to dream as Little Stream
winds
its way
into tomorrow.
The music was just so grand!
The music was just so grand!
The music was
just
so
grand!
Categories: Family Homeplace, Green Hill Farm, Reflections on Farm Life
Sweet memories!
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Thank you. It really doesn’t seem that long ago!
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Oh I’m a front porch person. Love a porch.
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I’m with you! So many things to love about a front porch! Thanks for visiting.
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what a nice post. I miss summer evenings back home listening to the locusts sing and then the lightning bugs starting to come out and then the crickets chirping away.
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Thanks a bunch, Jim. I’m happy you enjoyed it! Summer just wouldn’t be the same without all those special little insects. 😉
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What wonderful memories you have and what wonderful memories you’re making.
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
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Thanks so much, David. 🙂
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Such a nice porch, lovely memories and the extra special photo of your grandparents, Tonya! I loved the fantastic book you read to your students. 💖
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Thank you, Robin. I love the authenticity of that photo of my grandparents. The picture was taken for a photography class when I was in college.
I think I loved reading the book aloud as much as the children enjoyed listening to it. 🙂
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Oh, this was a sweet book and such a lovely sing song pattern with the cute creatures. I love animal books like “Is Your Mama a Llama?” and “Are You My Mother?” 🙂
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I love the musical quality of this book! The other books you mention are wonderful, too. I own a collection of children’s books that I regularly use during therapy sessions. I always incorporate children’s literature into articulation or language therapy. And, the books you mentioned are ones that I have read many times to my students. I’ve actually used “Is Your Mana a Llama” to address the /r/ sound in therapy. 🙂
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So sweet!
It is a grand porch 🙂 Do you really sweep so often? Cause I gotta tell ya, I’m impressed! lol Mine’s much smaller and I don’t do it every week! lol Maybe I need to sweep more love into it. Maybe mine isn’t special enough YET 😉
I must agree, porch time is a state of mind. When it’s a really good day, the porch is the place to be. Time’s slower on the porch. Tonight was 69 and breezy, and we were out there gazin.
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Thank you very much, Joey. You’re funny! I’m sure your porch is special. 😉 I do sweep a lot, especially in spring when the pollen is so high and the slate blue porch floor starts looking a bit yellow. We’re on a farm, and there’s just always something blowin’ up on the porch: grass, bugs, flower petals, dust….and if I don’t sweep fairly regularly, it gets tracked into the house. 🙂
Sounds like you had perfect weather for an evening of porch sittin and star gazin. Doesn’t get much better! I’m looking forward to a summer filled with lots of porch time. 🙂
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I do hope you have wonderful porch time 😀
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Thank you! 🙂
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Wonderfully evocative!
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That’s so nice! Thank you.
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Wonderful memories Tonya!
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Thanks, Ritu. I’m fortunate to have them! 🙂
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What sweet memories for you, and I just LOVE those verses! I can feel myself on a porch in Texas on a hot summer night, swinging away, listening to those crickets in the Bug-A-Wug Cricket Band!
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I’m delighted you liked the poem! It’s fun to read aloud, too. 😊 Thank you, Kathryn.
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Homes are wrought of memories and yours has the pleasure of 105 years of your family. Nicholas Cricket is such a lovely poem … thank you for sharing it – I would never have known. And a porch? This is a very European plea …. I absolutely without question NEED my forever home to have a proper porch – a Veranda actually … it’s a Waltons thing … little English girl tunes in every week and inhales that verandah porch thing. If we end up your side of the pond, it’s easy. If we end up this side we build which is almost as easy but I need it to look authentically old. You can if you will, I remind myself. Thank you for this delightful post!
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Thank you so much, Osyth. I’m happy you enjoyed the post. It was fun for me to write it and remember those long ago summers. 😊
I agree with you that having a porch or veranda is a must. We all need a place that invites serenity. I also remember watching the Waltons–a classic! I’m sure you will have the loveliest and most authentically old veranda in the future! 😊 xo
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Oh I will! I have a determined chin 😉 xo
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😊
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I love how your stories and memories of the past always include photos from that time. It brings your words and images to life..:) Love that.
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That’s a really lovely thing to say. Thank you, George. 😊
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I believe the idea of a house is a story
Not just the front porch
Simply a beautiful story
Thank you for visiting
See you on the other side of creativity
As Sheldon Always
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Thank you.
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