Front stoop

This post was prompted by Patry's post over at Simply Wait about Front porches; it got me thinking about my childhood home sans porch. I've always liked stoops tho. That's what we called the steps in front of our house when you were sitting on them - sitting on the front stoop, not steps. It has a better ring to it - like they are special. We would sit there when we were bored - nothing to do on a hot summer day or after a long bike ride or the favorite - when waiting for the ice cream truck.

It's funny this house has a deck in the back which the recluse in me likes - privacy- can only see my plants and animals(wild birds, my dog and cat, occasional deer and rabbit) and my kid. The previous house had a patio out back - same situation and it suited me just fine, cause my neighbors were crazy. But when family came to visit - where did we take the picture? - yup out front on the stoop - which was brick but didn't really qualify as we never hung out there; they really were front steps.

Our first house also had a deck, that we enjoyed but which wasn't private at all. I can remember hearing my new neighbor, directly behind me, ordering pizza and telling someone of his wild escapades of the night before. This was the house that put my friend (my other neighbor behind me to the side) into a tizzy/ and tree planting phase. The once empty lot behind us that we thought was not buildable was my friends new neighbor also. We spent alot of time bemoaning the fact, commisserating and planting trees. I had already put up a fence but then added a piece of lattice (covered by wisteria) to help until the tree grew. I guess i do like my privacy more than intimacy with the neighbors. However, Mary and I did wish that we had made a secret opening panel in the fence so we could get to each others places when we wanted to visit or to feed each other's cats when away. But the walk around the block didn't hurt. This same house did have a wood landing and steps in the front. I remember when friends of ours ,with their 4 kids, visited and I took a picture of all the kids on the "stoop". Here once again, we never hung out here, tho our old dog Sam did (but then he was a Golden Retriever and very much a front porch kinda guy). I think to really qualify as a stoop it has to be cement or brick or maybe it has to be NJ. Who knows?