Above all else, porches are made for relaxing. 



North Carolina countryside. 



"You can tell if someone is 

 receiving visitors because when they 

 are gone, they turn their chairs 

 upside down," she says. "It's an old 

 tradition." 



Porches became an in-between 

 space, not quite indoors but not 

 outdoors, where entertaining was 

 casual and striking up a conversa- 

 tion or saying good-bye was easy. 



"You would stop and sit on 

 someone's porch if you saw them 

 there, but you wouldn't knock on 

 their door because you wouldn't 

 want to bother them," Little says. 



Although its original appeal 

 was comfort, the porch became a 

 social buffer, where you could meet 

 and talk with people without taking 

 them into the intimacy of your 

 home, Southern says. 



"It was a semiprivate kind of 

 place without the formality of going 

 inside," he says. 



To this day, Wilmingtonians 



such as Larry Hovis, a self-pro- 

 claimed "porch hugger," continue 

 that tradition. Sitting on the front 

 porch of his pink Italianate house 

 in historic downtown, with church 

 bells chiming in the background, 

 Hovis explains that he and his wife 

 try to live in their home in much 

 the same way as the late 1 9th- 

 century residents who built it. 



They spend Friday evenings on 

 the front porch of their Fourth 

 Street house drinking wine or 

 sipping martinis, and they eat 

 meals on their back porch. Some 

 days are passed simply talking to 

 folks who might drop by. 



"When you're sitting out here 

 like this, people go by — you can't 

 help but talk to them," Hovis says. 

 "It kind of brings you to your 

 community ... . It does offer the 

 opportunity to get to know your 

 neighbors." 



An avid gardener, Hovis says 

 porch living gives him a chance to 



sit back and enjoy his potted 

 geraniums and other handiwork 

 while refreshing his spirit. Overhead, 

 he points out the canopied porch 

 roof, fashioned like a boat's hull and 

 painted blue to look like the sky, two 

 carry-overs from the 19th century. 



"In the evenings, there's a nice 

 breeze on the porch," he says. "It's a 

 perfect place to meditate and relax." 



Fanned by breezes with a 

 panorama of the outdoors spread 

 out for viewing, porches have long 

 been known to inspire confidences 

 and declarations that might not 

 otherwise spring up indoors. In their 

 embrace, they provide a respite 

 from the turmoil of life, granting 

 us perspective. 



Perhaps the reason their origin 

 cannot be traced for sure is that the 

 yearning for such a space exists in 

 each of us. As a child rocking in a 

 veranda hammock and watching the 

 swallows soar into the Caribbean 

 sky, I knew that we all need a place 

 to take in the breezes. □ 



COASTWATCH 15 



