Front Porch Memories

 

When I was a little girl, my family and I would sit on my grandparent’s front porch and watch the cars go by. I tell this story often because it’s one of my fondest memories. It was at a time in my life when I had no other cares in the world but to be able to correctly guess what color car was coming next. My pap would keep a record each time we played and my brother and I thought it was the best game ever.

One time, my brother fell off the porch into the hedges in front and the only thing you could see was his feet sticking out the top. I remember it like it was yesterday. I laughed hysterically. He cried hysterically.

I remember the days and weeks after my sister was born. My mom would bring the three of us to this house and we’d sit out on the porch with my grandparents while our dad was at work. It was June. We’d sit into the evening after the sun went down, and my brother and I would catch lightning bugs in the front yard.

I had my first school formal pictures taken right next to my grandmother’s rhododendrons. I was in 8th grade. My grandmother had been gone two years. My dress was blue and the flowers were pink.

As a child, I loved those moments, but I never knew how much they’d mean to me as an adult. My grandparents are gone. Life is much different than it was back then. Time has changed this house. It has changed me. The rhododendrons are gone. The hedges are gone. We changed the siding and the windows. That green turf that covered the porch has been gone for years.

There are very few photos from those times on my grandparent’s front porch, and I’d give anything to have them now to show my children…

who spend a lot of their days sitting on the same porch.

A couple days before our son was born, my daughter and I sat on the porch and watched cars go by. I was so worried about welcoming another member to our family. I didn’t want her to feel like she meant any less to me. The fear and anxiety had really gotten to me at that point. She had no other cares in the world but to correctly guess what color car was coming next.

Life is changing at an incredible rate. Chad and I have been in this home for nearly seven years. We’ve torn down walls and built new ones, ripped out carpet, rewired, bought new furniture and appliances, and so many of the things that were once here are now gone. But one thing remains the same; this home is filled with love and moments that I want to remember- that I want my kids to remember.

Our front porch takes center stage in a lot of those memories that I want to preserve for my family. The sound of my children’s feet against that turf stained concrete from my own childhood, hearing them guess which color car may come next around the turn, catching lightning bugs, telling stories, and just being.

Sometimes it’s hard to think about what life may look like 30 years from now. It’s hard to imagine that some of the memories we’re making now may be some of our children’s fondest memories. It’s hard to view mundane moments as important or memorable.

My life has changed a lot since the days of sitting on the porch with my grandparents and running my hands through my paps soft, white hair. I’ve grown and changed. I have two children of my own now, and we’re doing our best to preserve the mundane moments because I know that nothing stays the same. I take solace in the fact that my children will have tangible memories of their childhood; photos that they can hold in their hands to show their own children and grandchild one day as they tell stories about our front porch memories.