Friday, June 27, 2014

Beth’s porch


I went to Beth’s for lunch today, and we ate on her porch. I went for lunch a month ago, right after all kids were sprung from school, and we ate in the dining room. Today she put our plates of BLT’s on a tray. (First Ohio tomatoes; free range bacon from the oven; fresh Romaine; organic mayo [eat your heart out if your daughter does not own a restaurant!].)

“I can carry a plate to the table,” I protested. She added drinks and napkins, and we went to the porch. Beth lives in an old, ethnic pocket of Cleveland. Slovenia, Ukraine, some such. She married a Welsh man whose mother is German and a Ukraine dash. They live in a comfortable old home that housed laborers at the turn of another century. My mother approved her purchase, and as I remember, she bought Beth towels for her bathroom, one of the last things I recall happening in Moms life.

The porch had a standard half wall and obligatory support columns. When we went to visit the new homeowner, we’d wind up on her porch. Jan and I were in an antique store once, and spotted a turn of the century recliner. Wood slats, and a rod to hold the reclining back at different angles. We bought it at once and took it to Cleveland for the front porch. Beth found another one with a very similar back at a yard sale, and so there is a pair of comfy old chairs on the front porch.

Beth bought a farmhouse screen door at an auction in Wisconsin, and probably brought it home when she drove that little red truck. In a remodeling the porch went from half walled to screened, with an old Wisconsin farmhouse screen door. So, we ate lunch and chatted. Beth’s two, Francis and Caroline, are in South Carolina this week, with Grandma Ruth, visiting their cousins at Uncle Ben and Aunt Maureen’s house.

All those new names in the mix. Grandma Ruth is an amazing woman; I may get permission to tell you her story, which I've heard but was not part of. Uncle Ben is my son in law’s younger brother, a handsome young surgeon when I first met him, who took assignments at hospitals where pretty women abounded. The Bahamas. Vegas. Oh, the exotic girlfriends he worried his parents about. The he married a lovely nurse named Maureen, and made his mother very happy. His father, too.

Beth was waiting for Bill to come home, hopefully soon, otherwise at six. Sans kids, they intend to camp in the Alleghenies for a night or two. Bill is a bank executive who came home from a company picnic recently, happily waving a piece of paper. How many people work for a major bank, and he had won an extra day of vacation. Or, two half days, if his schedule worked out.


At one o’clock Bill parked on the street, in deference to my car in the one car drive, so I hugged everyone goodbye and left with a bag of my favorites, oatmeal raisin cookies. With no further preliminaries (haha), Beth’s porch, from my visit a month ago.



The chair from the antique store


The chair from the yard sale


Francis, toute cute in my mechanism close up


A cat heaven front porch


The other side of the screen door from Wisconsin




29 comments:

  1. It is a beautiful chair. I think they are called Morris Chair, Check this: http://www.artlex.com/delahunt/Morris.html

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  2. You are so correct, Alain. I did not remember all the Morris chairs littering the novels of brave young Englishmen off to drive ambulances.

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  3. Never mind cat heaven, that porch is pretty close to me heaven.
    And I hope you do get the necessary permission to tell Grandma Ruth's story.

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  4. I always love a good front porch. The one thing I miss from the house I was forced to leave.

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  5. Now I want a BLT!

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  6. What a lovely summer front porch story. I could feel I was there enjoying it all. The best of summer is sitting with friends.

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  7. Exactly the thing to do on a summer day! Love the porch door.

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  8. A rocking chair on the front porch, watching the world go by and chatting that's as good as it gets.
    Merle.....................

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  9. I love that chair with the pillows, it looks so cozy!

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  10. Fine chairs and door. I'd suggest that they consult a good antiques person before doing any 'improvements' on the chairs such as re-finishing.

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  11. Looks like a fine place to spend some summer days.

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  12. Those chairs are lovely. The whole porch is lovely. And what Elephant's Child said. There'd be room for both of us, I'm sure!

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  13. Beautiful cat. Nice chairs too. What lucky finds, both of them. I love porches and wish I had one. My back porch doesn't count, it is a storage area for all manner of things that don't fit inside.

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  14. I'm wondering how our cat Frankie got over there !
    Beautiful chairs & porch... I could sit there all day very happily.

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  15. Hari Om
    ...may I join in this growing queue of porch wannabees??!!! this was delicious. YAM xx

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  16. I love big screened in front porches. What a wonderful place to spend the summer.

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  17. I need a house with a porch,room for fourteen chairs ...one for me ,the rest for the cats.
    Jane x

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  18. That last comment reminded me of the saying, "content as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs..." Yes, I'd love a big porch with rocking chairs to watch the world go by! However, mine might have to be screened. Mosquitoes have gotten a bit bad lately around here.

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  19. Dear Joanne,
    the chairs look very inviting - and the food: mmmhh... Porch: so romantic.
    As to the many names you dropped: please add a genealogy next time, it might help :)

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  20. what a lovely lunch you had with Beth. oh those chairs do look comfy, did someone make the cushions for those chairs, love the print. I've been hunting for bargains for my porch haven't found just the right pieces yet. when I lived in Arkansas I had a lounge chair and I made a colorful cushion for it with a pink and green watermelon print. I mentioned that to Gary the other day and he surprised me and remembered the print fabric.

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  21. Oh, what a lovely porch! Simply beautiful.

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  22. I have one of those chairs! it was my grandfathers and it currently sits in my living room. I recently had new cushions made for it and the upholsterer made the back cushion to tall for my taste, then he disappeared into the mist, apparently leaving in the dead of night with rent unpaid.

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  23. We don't really do porches like you do over here - such a shame; they're a wonderful thing. The chair is beautiful but even more beautiful, is the cushion fabric. I'd like to have a closer look at that!

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  24. Oh I love how they removed the half wall and put up an old screen door. I always smile a little when I hear about old pieces being picked up far from home and then being hauled hundreds of miles to a new home. If only the screen door could talk. -- barbara

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  25. l miss that porch - haven't been there in way too long.

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  26. I love that screen door. And the cats!!

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  27. nice chair, porch, good food - you should visit more often.

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  28. we had a Morris chair in the attic of the house I grew up in. When we got measles, it came down to the dining room, shades were drawn to protect our eyes and we slept in it..Whatever happened to it I do not know. Good sleeping chair. Good for Bethie..

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  29. A front porch was on the “need list” when looking for our forever home. We always end our evenings sitting and watching the goings on in the neighborhood.

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