Life with porches was more friendly

To the editor:

I read Joe Sullivan's column on Sundays in the past. It brought back memories of my youth on a farm in Perry County.

I was especially intrigued by the statement about porches. I agree we have changed from sitting on our front porches, welcoming friends, family and neighbors to sit a spell and spend some time together. Life has changed. We have changed. Now we have decks and patios built in the back of the house, places we can go privately to shield ourselves and to recharge our batteries from long hours given grudgingly to our careers.

I was fortunate to grow up on a farm. It seemed like nothing but work at the time. We roamed our 200 acres of fields, woods, ponds and streams with adventure and imagination. It was our daily bread. It was also our theme park. We used and developed our imaginations. My friends were my five brothers and three sisters. The family checking account was thin, yet now I see we were the wealthiest people, blessed by a time and place given by God.

Now, I look to the present and the future. How did I rear my children? What have their years of youth been like? What will their adult lives become? These happenings, pasted into the book of time, are a novel unwritten, a history in the making. Thanks for the memories and images.

And I still have a front porch with chairs I use now and again.

JERRY BUCHHEIT, Jackson