“Johnny James was sitting on the front porch, sipping from a glass of gasoline in the December heat, when the doom-screamer came. ”

“God doesn't come to sit on the porch and sip lemonade. He comes to take over.”

“She liked to sit on the front porch in the afternoons and read books she'd checked out from the library. Aside from coffee, reading was her only indulgence.”

“I just want to come and sit on your front porch and drink mint juleps.”

“No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn't want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn't look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn't want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong KIND of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches.”

“But drenched in vanilla twilightI'll sit on the front porch all nightWaist deep in thought because whenI think of you I don't feel so alone”