While driving the other day, a song by Tracy Lawrence came on the radio called “If The World Had A Front Porch.”

That got me thinking about all the times I spent on front porches with friends growing up.

We all had a front porch and none of them were the same. Some were large, some were small, some no more than a couple steps and a landing.

There were huge ones that were both open and screened in.

We played on them, watched the world go by on them and even cried on them as our friends got to play while we were stuck sitting on ours because we were sick or because we were being punished.

There is a line in that Lawrence song that has always struck me because of how it rings true until this day.

“If the world had a front porch like we did back then, we’d still have problems, but we’d all be friends. Treatin’ your neighbor like he’s your next of kin, wouldn’t be gone like the wind, if the world had a front porch like we did back then.”

A lot of problems were worked out on the front porches I used to inhabit as a youngster. Fights were settled, either amongst ourselves or with the help of our parents.

We played board games and card games. We talked about everything under the sun and even watched the sun set if you were on the right side of the street.

I can even remember that is where milk was delivered, as well as the mail, which as a kid, was a magical time of day especially if the mailman brought you something.

Some of the more popular porches that we grew up on had a swing.

That swing would not be so much a fixture on the porch when you were young, but as we turned into teenagers, a porch with a swing might have been where you got your first kiss.

I now live in a house with a small little porch. There is not much room for chairs and there is definitely no room for a swing.

I envy those who have bigger front porches, especially the kind that wrap around and entire house.

And as the song goes, “somehow mama always knew just when to leave it on.”

Maybe we should all begin leaving that light on, spending time on the porch and treating our neighbors like kin again.

Scott Novak, is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com