A Quick Hello

Hello, my name is Emily

I read once that architects who blueprinted houses without porches and the installation of air-conditioning killed America. Having no porch on which to perch and no cool breeze to seek, we were driven inside to our televisions and later, Netflix, becoming people with similar addresses rather than neighbors with shared lives.

I grew up without air-conditioning in the gnat capital of the planet. I don’t exactly want to go back, and you can’t go back anyway, not really, even if you want to. I do miss the lost art of visiting. I miss going by to see people with no agenda or purpose. I miss stopping by just because you hadn’t seen someone in a while or maybe you have some fresh tomatoes to share or something you needed to talk about. I miss having people roll up into our yard and have my Mama make a pot of coffee or slice a fresh pound cake. One doesn’t send a meeting invite for visiting.

Thanks for visiting A Chick’s View – the door isn’t locked, just shut the screen so that the flies stay out and rest in my words. Hopefully, our universes will align and for a moment you will feel a kindred, cool breeze on the porch swing.