Southern Comfort

Locals who have lived in the Charlotte area their whole life will tell you that there was once a time when Southerners enjoyed warm summer evenings sitting on their porch. This porch sitting was to them a time for sipping Coca Cola, telling stories and watching lightning bugs.

I’m told now that porch sitting has all but disappeared due to the onslaught of air conditioning, high-speed internet, and migrants, such as Karen and I, who have come from places like Utah where the evenings are cold.

Since moving to Charlotte, I’ve actually noticed that most of the developers building new homes here are doing away with the traditional front porch by substituting it with a deck on the back.
Despite this occurance, I think most Southerners are
still nostalgically attached to the porch as symbols of old-fashioned Southern comfort.

In fact, the culture of porches is easily seen all over Charlotte. One of alternative newspapers here, which is deep into things like healing crystals, has a section called "The Front Porch" and at the Charlotte Airport you’ll find a terminal displaying photographs of Carolinians sitting on their porches.

So, as a salute to an era that is all but bygone, Karen and I got out our folding camping chairs, opened a couple of sodas and spent the evening sitting on the porch.