My front porch is well recessed and gives good protection from rain and hail. Like many such houses in Allen, our 1929 house was built to make sure that when you sat out front you could see and visit your neighbors who also sat outside on their own porches. It was normal back then for neighbors to share the events of their day on one or the other porches. You could even get a 3 or 4 porch conversation going if you were lucky. Back then the front porch was a very important part of the house.

Now, not so much. The nearest we can come to it now is perhaps a covered slab out back with a privacy fence to keep our doings private. Call it a patio. That may be why a lot of people don’t really ever get to know their neighbors except to perhaps give out a wave on the way to work. Socializing mostly comes from the kids who visit each other. We’re mostly just OK with sitting in our dens and watching the world go by on our big screen TVs. And that’s OK for most of us. I mean we have our computers and cell phones we have to tend to too.

But this past Saturday evening as it was growing dark, I told Pat how glad I was for our front porch. I gave silent thanks to old Dr. Bently (who built this place) for how he built this old house. He not only built a generous size porch, but he also bordered the porch with brick arches which protect porch sitters a little bit from rain and wind. But as I was telling Pat “It’s a good place watch it come a summer rain.” And that’s where we sat, in our front porch swing this last Saturday night watching the storm clouds gather but relaxed knowing we were not in any storm warning area. Boy, was I ever wrong.

The winds never came up, but the clouds swirled around in a menacing way. Pat said we should just go inside. I told her to go ahead, I was going to enjoy the beauty of mother nature’s light show. She went on in and but soon I felt mother nature was getting a little bit carried away with herself, but I stuck it out a little while in my comfortable swing. The skies developed a continuous whine, like that of a tornado, but still, I stayed on station.

If was after I heard a thud followed by a clatter which would have drowned out any peaceful summer night conversation. The unwanted hail was here, and boy did it get noisy. The church across the street has a big metal roof. The heavy roar drove me off my wonderful porch but after several minutes the noise subsided. I walked back out. My yard was white, and my driveway was covered with pecan tree leaves, small limbs and my entire yearly pecan crop. Just as I told Pat it was all over the big hail really arrived. This stuff was big. Historically big. Scary.

The power was still on, but the TV was finished. No signal. We just grabbed our flashlight and went on to bed. The hail stones, not so numerous now but very large and making strange noises as they thudded into my house. But I was finished on my porch. Sunday morning I went out to look. My big shutters were ruined. Some windows were broken. My banisters on my back door steps were shattered and all my siding on the house was severely damaged. A car parked near my house was dented and its windshield was broken. At this writing I have no idea of the dollar damage done to the homes and cars of Allen, but it will be historic. I was thankful for my big garage for my cars.

I will wind up this article with some cheerful news. I’m thankful for our local football team who earned a big victory over Konawa last week. And I also enjoyed reminding fans that we hardly ever beat Coalgate in Coalgate. Their fine team has held us off on their home field each and every game since 1933. But we beat those wildcats 2 weeks ago on their home turf. Yes, that’s 90 years! Congratulations Mustangs! I enjoy hearing from readers. Have a good week and be sure and go to church on Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh cwaynebullard@gmail. com