COMMENTARY: Have a seat
Mon, 08/10/2009
By Jonathan McAfee
Have you ever taken a walk along the streets of West Seattle just to look at some of the houses on our streets? We have a very diverse selection of house designs from Victorian to Cape Cod to Post War in a community that’s best known for it’s beach.
Most of the homes have been given proper care and attention by their West Seattle owners who have a great deal of pride in their appearance.
I love the variety of porches we have in West Seattle. Some are small, not much wider than the doors they surround, while some go across the front of the houses where a couple can sit without being crowded.
Some have the beautiful, long porches that wrap around the house and the homeowners have a choice of where to sit. And some homes have expansive decks on the front of them where the whole family and a few friends can relax together for dinner and some dancing.
Unfortunately, those beautiful porches and decks are rarely used. Even when they are decorated with chairs, gliders, swings, tiki torches and strings of lights, the porches often go unused even on the nicest evenings. Why is that?
Whatever happened to sitting on the front porch after dinner to relax and see what’s passing by? With as beautiful and pleasant of summers that we have here in Seattle, why don’t any of us go outside and sit a spell?
I think the obvious answer is modern conveniences. With air conditioning, we no longer need to go outside to cool off when we can keep the inside at a comfortable 70 degrees. And why spend time talking to our families or neighbors when the television will tell us everything we need to know anyway? And who needs to start a conversation when we can now blog, e-mail or text message?
I talked to my mother about the good old days when front porches were so widely used. In the 1940’s, there was no air conditioning or computers or TV, and growing up in the Midwest, where the summers are usually hot, spending the evenings on the porch were a necessity because the inside of the house was too warm and uncomfortable.
She said the families would sit on the front porch hoping to catch a cool night breeze, and as they sat together, they would talk about anything and everything. Occasionally, the neighbors would walk by, say hello, and perhaps share what was happening in their lives.
It was a way to share news and get to know each other. As a child, my mother would sit with her parents and listen to the stories they would tell, and if not for that time on the front porch, she may not have heard a lot of the legacy that makes up my family.
Perhaps we all missed an opportunity when our weather was so hot to share our stories. I doubt many of us with older homes have air conditioning, so getting outside in the cool of the evening may have been an escape, but how many of us did that? And if we did, how often did we say hello to the strangers walking by or to the folks on their porches when we walked by?
Have we become too wary of people we don’t know because we are convinced that they are lunatics in disguise? Granted, if you see someone walking by in a loin cloth, flippers and a tiara while screaming at the flies around their head, then it’s probably okay to ignore them, but how often does that happen?
I guess what I’m talking about is getting out and getting to know those people who live near us. To create a sense of community as we share a little friendliness and a little neighborly behavior. If you already do this, then I applaud you.
I hope you’ll spread the idea around to everyone around you. And if you’re a little apprehensive about saying hello, think of it as doing your part to make West Seattle the friendliest community around town. Just one more thing we can take pride in.
So, when the weather gets warm again, and the house gets too uncomfortable to be inside, why not grab a cold drink and head for the front porch for a little chat and a chance to see who’s passing by?
Jonathan McAfee has lived in West Seattle since 1994 and is a periodic contributor to the West Seattle Herald.