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This contribution to "In Your Own Words" comes from Alexandria Jordan. Here she goes...in her own words.
The New Front Porch
Copyright 2001 by Alexandria Jordan
When I was about three...maybe four, we got a new front porch....
We lived in a simple, four room house. The route to the bath room was literally a path that started at the back door and went up over the hill and turned to the left. We were uptown though, because we had a two-seater! To "turn the water on" we had to make the nightly trip down the road to the well, pack in the water cans, and use the dipper. Though it was a pain, I've never tasted water out of a tap that was so good nor have I ever seen a bunny rabbit playing when I have gone to turn on the faucet. If we were cold, we had to throw another log in the old Warm Morning which was the "focal point" of our living room. If we were hot, we had to put the fan in the open window......so curtains were an expense we did not have.....they would just have gotten in the way.......and we believed form should follow function!
I remember when I was very small, the outside of our home was just wood. The paint was peeling......I believe it was white. Anyway, one day these salesmen came by. The next thing I knew, we had pretty, new, green aluminum siding. Mom loved it for the looks, but it seems Daddy only bought it because they put insulation under it...and we didn't have any insulation before the green aluminum siding came along!
I didn't understand it, but Dad's family sure got in an uproar about the aluminum siding. They just kept saying, "Bubby, why in the world didn't you put brick or rock up!" Of course, Daddy would rather have gone fishing. He put brick and rock on people's houses all week. This way, the siding men worked...and Daddy went fishing!
Mom always seemed a little sad when we would go visit Uncle Chop and Aunt Shelby. They had the cutest little block home, with a fire place, running water, and a bath room! I didn't understand why they lived there if Daddy had built it. What did an ex-wife and a divorce have to do with them living in Daddy's....our....house?
Even though the white, peeling paint was covered by fresh, green aluminum siding and insulation....our front porch was far from new. My dogs, IK and Chug-a-Lug, and I had to be very careful where we stepped because of the holes. They were mostly at the edges of the 35 or 40 feet by 10 or 12 feet porch. They had been there as long as I could remember, and made the long expanse interesting for a little girl and her dogs.
Grandpa Allen did not seem to see it that way however. Every time he pulled up in his dusty blue Ford pick up....with the window rolled down, country music on the radio, a can holder tucked inside the window holding a Busch Beer can...and his salt shaker (did you know you had to put salt on your beer can top? Unfortunately, I learned stuff like that at a very early age!)....anyway, every time he pulled up, he would start in about the shape the porch was in. I noticed Daddy never said anything to him about it, but when he would leave, Daddy would sure be worked up! "I'm not missing a day of fishing to fix that porch! Let it fall down!" We, Mom and I, sure knew to stay away from him when he was worked up like that! Funny though, he never said any of those things to Grandpa and Grandpa was the only one who told him he needed to fix the porch!
One Saturday morning...fishing day....bright and early, I heard the sound of the old dusty blue Ford truck pulling in our driveway. It was Grandpa! And in the bed of the truck was a big bunch of rough cut lumber. We all walked outside and Grandpa told Daddy it was time to build the new front porch. I remember Daddy's face getting beet red, but he never said a word. Soon, you could hear old boards being ripped up and nails being pounded into new boards. You could also hear Grandpa just a singing away as he would hammer a little bit then take a sip of his Busch Beer, with the salted top. Daddy, who almost always had a song to sing or a joke to tell, was not saying a word! Now, I was little, so I really don't remember how long it took them to finish the porch. I do remember though that when they were done, Ik, Chug-a-Lug, and I didn't have to watch out for any holes! Grandpa said, "Now that baby won't get her leg broken!" And drove away.
As we stood on the new front porch and watched the dusty blue Ford truck pull away, Daddy broke his silence. I thought the new porch was grand and could not imagine what all the cussing was about. Especially since the one he was so mad at was driving off! I can't recall details, but I'm sure we all, Mom and I, walked on egg shells for a few days after that. Funny, that part does not seem to matter now. What matters to me is...Grandpa knew Daddy would not build it unless he made him....so Grandpa made sure I had a new front porch!
In Loving Memory of The King Bee,
Allen Maxwell Leonberger
Alexandria Jordan
Copyright 2001
All Rights Reserved
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