Porch Stories

Some memories fade, but a few stick like splinters — sharp, clear, and unforgettable. This one’s been with me since I was just a little thing, not even old enough to remember anything… except I do. What adult remembers things from when they were 2 years old?I do. It’s a brief memory — just a…

I don’t remember picking a single green bean that year… but I dang sure remember sitting by that fire.

Let me tell you about the time I took something that wasn’t mine—but thought it should be mine—and I lied about it too. 😬 I was about 9 years old. School was the place to be in the fall at that age. Back then, we had those individual desks where your books and stuff went…

In my last story mentioned the old man with all the dogs, where, as a kid, we used to have a tater patch on his property. So I’d like to tell a bit about him. Frank was his name, and he lived by himself in this rickety old house that looked like it had been…

When I was a kid, our summers were spent going barefoot and tending taters. And by that, I mean Dad had a huge tater patch—and us kids were in charge of planting, weeding, and picking them up when it came time to dig. We sure had to work for most of our food back then….

When I was about five or six, we lived in a little clapboard house on a hill. It sat right along a two-lane road, and to me, that hill felt massive back then—like climbing a mountain just to get home. We didn’t have much, but we had what we needed. And, apparently, that included a…

I’ve always liked cats—never really loved them, so to say—but they’re good to have around for mouse control and sometimes moles. 🐭 Anyway, let me get to the cat story I mentioned back in my first blog. At the time, I already had two cats and didn’t want any more. Shoot, one’s plenty, really. But……

Let’s go way back to the early ’70s—I was 9 years old, and it was summer. Back then, you played outside all day, and rainy days found you inside. Either way, in my house, it was always “let’s torment a sibling day,” and you never knew when you got up that morning if you were…