Grandpa's Front Porch

To this day I remember sitting on the porch with my grandpa Henson; He was a wonderful man with a bald head head ringed with white hair, blue eyes, loving hands and shiny black shoes.

It wasn't a large porch, a concrete one with 4 porch posts and concrete steps.
A porch swing hung on the porch, where I used to swing and pretend to be riding in a spaceship that flew to the moon;
Sitting in that swing I had asked my grandma such important questions as "why are you so hungry when you wake up in the morning?" And she answered me, patiently.

When we visited my grandparents we would always sit on that porch during the day and it was a cool place to sit and catch the breeze. In the evening, when a million stars came out and darkness fell heavily around their country home, it was peaceful and quiet. We would sit and watch the lightening bugs rise from the yard and hear the night birds call to their mate.

Then someone would ask my grandpa "Tell us about the time..." and he would. First he would tamp down the tobacco in his pipe and light it with a wooden match. The sweet smell of pipe tobacco would reach us as we sat in our various places on the porch. Then my grandpa would start to speak and tell us stories of when he was a child in the early 1900s. He would tell ghost stories and stories of panthers and walking the railroad line and ghost lights.

As I sat on the stairs of the porch, suddenly the peaceful darkness became full of shadows. Panthers hid behind the Rose of Sharon bushes that minutes ago were just bushes. Ghost lights bobbed over the yard that minutes ago were full of lightening bugs. Couldn't anyone else see how we were all now in danger?? Didn't anyone else see the ....

Suddenly, the back door opened and Grandpa walked into the house to get a second cup of coffee. The light from the door chased the ghosts and panthers far away and I feeling foolish went inside for some ice cream.

Until next time Grandpa told his stories, everything on the porch was peaceful again.