The faraway front porch
My Aunt's cottage - center - on Keuka Lake, NY
Every home seems to have its favorite gathering spot. At my aunt’s cottage on Keuka Lake that spot is the front porch. I drove there recently and took down a tree for her. She then made dinner and we retired to the front porch, overlooking the water on a sunny evening. It’s amazing how far away and peaceful this porch is, just an hour from the city.
A flycatcher had built her nest in the porch eaves; she swooped in toward the nest, saw us, and swooped right on out the other end of the porch. We lowered the porch blinds, little by little, as the bright sun dropped in the sky. I glimpsed what looked like a beaver swimming. It dove under and my aunt didn’t see it. As we waited for it to re-surface, she speculated it might be the muskrat that was wreaking havoc in everyone’s gardens. I watched a chipmunk on the roof of the next-door cottage inspecting the chimney for possible channels of entry.
We forgot about the beaver-muskrat. We discussed who might be coming for the weekend, including a review of sleeping arrangements and what tools my cousin Ellen would bring. We forgot about the world, a skill gleaned from spending many summer days on this very porch. I was watching swallows dive-bombing insects above the water when the old table phone rang – a bonafide Mayberry RFD Kaaa-riiing!
“That’s probably Ellen,” my aunt said, hurrying inside.
“Tell her ‘Hi!'” I called after her.
She returned a moment later. “It was a telemarketer,” she said.
I haven’t felt that invaded since my new truck was broken into.
Explore posts in the same categories: UncategorizedTags: Telemarketing
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
Counter Intelligence 
July 17, 2008 at 2:11 am
What I wouldn’t give to be sitting on a porch of a lake house, on a lake (appropriately), listening to a phone ring and being picked up by an answering machine. Your aunt’s cottage looks like you could spend a night sleeping on that porch, lulled to sleep by the water. And no telemarketers. No television. Nothing but the breathing of the person you are laying next to. Ok, well maybe a rain storm repleat with thunder and lightening but nothing else.
July 19, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Wow! a front porch near the waters? Must be lucky to have one. Nice fresh air in there in the morning. Such a beautiful lake house from the point of view in the picture you have here. I wish I could live for the rest of my life in a house like that.