Are you a front porch person? Or are you a back deck dweller? My grandparents were front porch people. I remember spending time with them on their front porch. Grandpa reading the paper, Grandma reading a magazine or talking to whoever was with us on the porch. I liked the front porch because of the glider, that’s what we called it anyway. The glider was a piece of furniture kind of like a couch, but it moved back and forth like a swing, hence the name glider. This was my preferred seat on the front porch. While the grownups wiled away the hours in conversation, I spent the time moving back and forth on the glider. It was rhythmical, it was soothing. I could watch the world go by and dream my dreams, while my grandparents and mom talked over the events of the day and waved to neighbors and passersby, often engaging them in conversation.

That’s the thing about front porches – they are inviting. They are open to invitation and engagement with other people. Front porches are the places where people can hang out and catch up with each other on the day’s events. Or at least they used to do that. But as times changed, there was a trend toward building back decks and these became the places where family would go to spend time together outdoors. Now back decks are more secluded than front porches. They are not visible from the street, so they don’t provide the opportunity to interact with neighbors and other passersby that front porches provide.

There is an older neighborhood that I walk in often. The houses there are close together and they all have some type of a front porch. However, walking in newer neighborhoods, I notice the homes are further apart and the front porches tend to be small or nonexistent. There is no place to put rocking chairs, no room to sit, no space in which to people watch and visit with family and friends. Maybe that’s why front porch sitting is an activity of the past? All the front porches have vanished, forcing front porch people to become back deck dwellers.

Or did people first start adding back decks, which caused a migration to the back decks of our neighborhoods, leading people to abandon their front porches in favor of becoming back deck dwellers, thus rendering front porches unnecessary and obsolete? Who can say which came first? But the current reality is that front porches don’t seem as prevalent as they once were and by extension front porch people are a dying breed.

It would seem that back deck dwellers are more isolated from their neighbors and others, while front porch people tend to make the connections that allow them to create community where they live. “Setting a spell” on the front porch with your neighbors provides the perfect opportunity to get to know those that live around you and forge bonds of friendship. Who would have guessed that front porches have played such a pivotal role in creating community and combating isolation? Which is why it is too bad that front porches seem to be disappearing from our modern day houses.

Today isolation seems to be on the rise. We are more disconnected than ever before, even from those who live closest to us. Ironically, we are more connected via the internet, but less connected personally in the real world. Cyberspace is the new reality for many, taking the place of the person to person connection that has always been our truest reality. So bring back the front porches, I say! And with them bring back all the former front porch people! And let’s welcome in a whole new generation of front porch persons as well.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the times I spent on my grandparents’ front porch gliding on the glider, eating Grandma’s cookies and listening to all the various conversations swirling around me, teaching me about life even though I was totally unaware that was what was happening at the time. There are a lot of life lessons you can learn on the front porch if you are listening. (of course back then, there were no ear buds, no cell phones, no video games – so we actually looked each other in the eye and paid attention to the person speaking)

That’s how you got the latest local news of the day – in person on the front porch. Of course some would call this gossip, but either way, be it news or gossip, it was delivered in person, not on Instagram, or Facebook or Twitter, or some other social media platform. Today we look at our phones to see what’s scrolling and trending. Turns out it’s gossip disguised as news, just like on the front porch. I guess some things don’t change after all. Just method of delivery has changed from in-person to online.

Maybe that’s why front porches are no longer so important. We can get our news/gossip from the internet, so who needs real life neighbors anyway? We find ourselves attempting to build community with people we won’t necessarily ever meet, rather than building relationships with the people living around us that we could interact with personally if we made the choice to do so. And that’s where front porches come in handy, providing that perfect low-tech platform for human interaction and conversation to take place.

Whether it be the friendly front stoop or the spacious veranda with rocking chairs all lined up, a front porch by any name is a good place to pass the time with family, friends and neighbors. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is – “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Well, I can’t love my neighbor if I don’t know my neighbor, now can I? To this end, the front porch seems an invaluable asset in this pursuit of knowing and loving the people that live around me.

With loneliness born of isolation on the rise, maybe it’s time for back deck dwellers to become front porch people once again. The connections and community that come out of ordinary front porch conversations are often extraordinary. These grassroots relationships can carry a community forward in creating a place where neighbors are no longer strangers but friends who look out for one another. A change for the better. A way to alleviate the isolation people feel that is so prevalent today. And it all starts on our front porches! That’s reason enough to pull up a chair and set a spell – reason enough to become a front porch person. Because it’s front porch people who will change this world for the better, one conversation at a time, one listening ear at a time, one kind, encouraging word at a time.

sincerely, Grace Day