Before there was Facebook, front porches and backyards ruled

Back in the day, the front porch wasnt just a roof to keep the rain off you while you unlocked the front door. No one locked their doors. The front porch was well-used living space. It was particularly important in the hot weather, because there was no air conditioning.

If you wanted to cool off and relax you had to go outside. Many porches had awnings that helped keep the porch cooler. While you were cooling off on the porch swing or in a rocking chair you could see your neighbors doing the same. Exchanging pleasantries was so important then. If it was a rainy day the porch was the place to be shielded from the soft summer rain.

Porches were the Facebook of their day. Porches, the social hub of the house in warm weather, were the places where neighbors came to sit and visit, where children played, where young men courted young women, where women did needlework, and when evening came it was the place to rest before turning in for the night.

Porches were a part of American culture from the Civil War until the late 1960s, when architecture and lifestyles changed. Modern, low-slung ranch-style houses became the dream home. Many were air-conditioned so the porch was no longer a necessity. Porches went out of style but in many memories the friends and neighbors still visit, little girls giggle, and a cool breeze is still welcome.

Backyards were more utilitarian. It was the place where women hung out the laundry, and it was hung in order all the towels together, all the sheets, and so on. If the family had a dog, its house was in the backyard.

Andy Kindle, who lives in Wayne Township, fondly remembers his front porch and backyard in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The clotheslines ran the length of the backyard, which was bordered on one side by a road and had a garden on the other side.

Our backyard was the neighborhood softball yard. Usually, there were six kids and my dad was the catcher. First base was on the edge of the garden and second base was the clothesline post. Third base was a tree almost across from first, and at the end of the lot was an alley. A ball hit over it was a home run, Kindle said. We played every evening from about 5 oclock until dark that was softball time, and this went on for almost 10 years, Kindle said.

For Kindle the front porch holds memories of the place where friends and family met. He recalls that if you saved Cheerios boxtops you could send away and get a cardboard layout of the territory of the Lone Ranger.

We would open the living room window and wait for The Lone Ranger radio program to come on with the Hi-Yo Silver and Away, Kindle said. After the program we would lay out Lone Ranger town on the cardboard and spend hours hunting the bag guys, Kindle said.

Ellwood City resident Karen Mancinis favorite front porch memory was watching the Soap Box Derby in the 1960s.

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Before there was Facebook, front porches and backyards ruled