The swing on the front porch served as a good place to just swing and sing or hum the melodies of our childhood - melodies close to our hearts. Many times we would get into four part harmonies and sing everything from love songs, old songs, church songs, and even some we made up as we went along and laughed until our sides hurt from the sillyness. Oh, those wonderful good old days on that front porch swing...Often sunset founds us out there after a big Sunday dinner with the whole family and the beaus, and sweethearts, and we'd sip our coffee or lemondade swapping stories until the mosquitos chased us back inside.

The stories sometimes were legends passed down by older children and perhaps a mischievous adult who wanted to watch the little kids squirm. I heard many a ghost story and was scared silly, but still listened even though I was afraid of my own shadow for many days to come. And the stories of grandma's and grandpa's long gone and their great pursuits or obstacles they'd overcome making a house and a piece of land into a home. Of course some stories grew taller as the generations passed, but for the most part,they were true and made us proud of who we were and the stock we came from. As Grandma always told us girls, "You's a Gibbons and don't you be forgettin' it when you's out in the world!"

My, I am enjoying writing about my memories of growing up in the mountains of West Virginia. I am proud of my heritage. I sm proud of who I am and my love for the mountains that for me were a way of life. In the mad rush of today's world, it is often pleasant to just bask in the joy of and remember how simple life was and how happy we were in those good old days.

Again, my question to most of us tonight and especially to the folks that grew up as I did, would be �What ever happened to the Front Porch?� Today homes are usually all built pretty much alike with beautiful deck porches with no tops. Now I ask you! How can you tell stories on a deck porch when it rains? No disrespect intended, but a deck porch has no character or "life" of it's own. They aren�t much good for courtin� or singing, telling family stories after family gatherings - there's just not enough room!. So, tell me folks, what happened to our front porches? Many years ago there were long ones, round ones, odd shaped ones� but you could depend on a solid front porch in those good old days growing up in my mountain home in West Virginia.

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Midi "I'll Remember" is
used with permission
and is copyright � 2001 Bruce DeBoer

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