September 19, 2018: Porch Time

Day 12 | 30 Days of Writing


In text exchanges with my father-in-law, Larry, I often get this response when I ask what he is doing...

"Porch time!"

I had never heard this phrase before, but totally get it. For him, it means sitting on the porch late afternoons with neighbors. Watching the cars go by, possibly enjoying a libation, and taking in the action of a small town.

This was no different from my days growing up in my small town. Most homes in Remsen had porches, many with porch swings or rocking chairs, either the wood or iron models. And walking through the town meant waving to the occupants of these outdoor posts. The picture above that showed up on my FaceBook feed is a mirror to my childhood memory.

When visiting my Grandma Gib, she had an enclosed porch where we often sat and talked about whatever struck our fancy. At the farm of my other grandparents, we skipped the fancy chairs and just sat on the cement step of the porch. We spent many summer nights with a glass of sweetened Lipton tea watching the sun set. This typically followed a long day of farm work with uncles and brothers joining me. On those nights, not a lot of words were spoken;  just the quiet enjoyment after a hard day's work and the beauty of an Iowa summer night.

Larry told me about how nice it was in his small town of Monterey when there was a book mobile. This van was sponsored by the public library and would travel around through the country and small towns providing library books to those who didn't readily have access. He loved it. When I asked what happened to this treasured book mobile, we surmised that it likely lost government funding.

That's when my idea was hatched. Wouldn't it be fun to have a mobile van, the ones you see everywhere for retail pop-ups and food trucks, that would travel the country roads and set up shop three times a day; coffee time, lunch time and porch time, in different communities. We would stock our mobile van of fun with books, videos, and community conversation essentials (like freshly brewed coffee and a bounty of rockers) and set up shop at small town parks at pre-determined times. Porch time always to close the day.

Larry and I are conspiring to do this in Indiana next summer. A bit of a dream, but is sounding pretty amazing the more we discuss. We could go through his house and memorabilia one day and then spend alternating days traveling around Indiana in our mobile van. From coffee to porch time, we would be taking in Americana at it's best. And I could collect the stories of those we meet. A book! I would be a ghost-writer of sorts for some very interesting people, the fabric of the Midwest.

Hmmmmm...

Life is full of so many wonderful possibilities. This will be a good conversation over our road trip.

My grandparents porch on the farm
(Sandy, Mark, Matt - Wagner sibs)

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