May 15
Up with the front stoop
Cats: slack woman|Back decks are great places for back deck barbecues and back deck chairs and back deck tables.You can lounge around with no one to bother you, no cars on the street, no people walking up and down the sidewalk. It’s private out there in your wolmonized wonderland.
But if you want to know what’s going on in your ‘hood, if you want to stay connected and on top of the scuttlebutt, nothing but nothing beats sitting out on your front stoop on a summer’s eve.
You may get privacy on the back deck, but you get all the dirt on the front stoop.
June 15th, 2007 at 2:59 am
can’t believe you’d stoop so low as to entrap me on that durn, dark deck when such a grand colorful world existed to the front of the house…eh. that’s friends for you, keeping the best for themselves….guess I should be happy you didn’t share in your column the whole of our conversation that night….eh, then again, what can compete with planting tulips and snaring babysitters…
June 15th, 2007 at 3:02 am
hey…i got cut off…you can’t hit return on a blogg???well, one final word…you, gifted typist, are a true magician, you can turn tulips into sunflowers, turn metal into gold, turn an evening with a gut-pining friend into a column for your paper….ever try creative writing????luv you, D
June 15th, 2007 at 3:34 am
Creative writing?
Shaddup!
June 15th, 2007 at 4:48 am
I know exactly waht you mean. When I lived in Ontario, I had a tiny backyard that I turned into my little green oasis and had filled with lovely plants. I even dug a pond and managed to grow beautiful water hyacinths. But where did I spend my time? Sitting on my grotty cement front stoop. Love your blog. Colleen
June 15th, 2007 at 7:14 am
The facade of a building is there to provide a false expectation. When you join it you are perpetuating that false image. Behind the house there is no doubt farting, swearing, sweats, ripped t-shirts, and unruly kids. In front of the house is only silent farts, polite conversation, the new summer wardrobe, and little angels.
You’ll only really get a pulse on the neighbors if you skulk around in the back yards.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:44 am
This side of the pond in the 16th 17th century there used to be such a thing as a window Tax, yes your building was taxed on how many windows your property had on the front elevation. So you see quite allot of property’s with fake bricked up windows painted to look like the real thing, thus making your building look grander and worth more than it actually was. What is a stoop anyway?
June 15th, 2007 at 8:46 am
I’m with Dick. I think I’ll spend the weekend inviting myself to my neighbours back decks. Just to see what is really going on! Loved the column!! Actually, enjoyed the whole blog. Great writing! Thanks for brightening my day.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am
what’s a stoop?????someone doesn’t know what a stoop is??
eh, can’t be a maritimer….
guess you don’t know what firk is either…
June 15th, 2007 at 10:29 am
oops right, don’t hit return….
a stoop is where you sit watching the chickens firk for feed…
June 15th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Funny Ro, I didn’t realize stoop was a local. Does that make me stoop-id? Does any from outside the Maritimes use this word, Stoop?
As Donna said, it’s the front step. We always sit out on the stoop.
look here for some pix
June 15th, 2007 at 11:13 am
We called it a stoop in Ontario, where I lived half my life.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Oh, I just thought it was your funny Canadian accent getting step wrong! lol Well I’m a builder and have never been asked to build a stoop (still making me laugh), I also do quite a bit of yacht sailing, well until a couple of years ago and nope still not heard of stoop or firk for that matter. Asked a good friend of mine who is an officer in the Royal Navy and he’s just as puzzled. I used to keep chickens and ducks years ago and I never saw them firk for food, they only firked when they wanted to make little chickens!!!!
June 15th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Oh firk off, Ro.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Yes, I used to love to sit down, with my kids, at the end of the walkway in front of our house. Then the city came, put in new sidewalks, and poured concrete obliterating the spot we sat in – Thank-you once more Peter Kelly….
June 15th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
In the summer our back deck is a very sunny spot. If we want shade and a breeze we pull up the lawn chairs on the front lawn & yes, there are neighbours up and down the street standing in each other’s driveways, having a beer & discussing lawn care, child care, etc. You don’t hear any gossip on your back deck! (and yes I call it a stoop too, but I grew up in NS) Only a few neighbours are fortunate enough to have a verandah – front yard luxury!
June 15th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I take walks after dark. Peek into their lives lit windows. Listen to the voices flutter out onto the street. Love that quick slice of their lives. Maybe I’m a voyeur?
June 16th, 2007 at 4:53 am
Beth, me too. Then children came along and curtailed my evening walks, but now that they are getting older, my evening walks are returning and reactivating my “inner voyeur”
June 16th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Hey Cheesy Ro, Only poor chickens firk…those who haven’t gotten fed in a day or two and are firking the ground for left over bits of yesterday’s feed….if you still got chickens, don’t feed em for a few days and then watch em resort that old primitive primal pattern of firkin for feed…guaranteed…
June 16th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Spent last evening at a neighbour’s FRONT step. Had a great time. I snuck around back to check out the back deck – hardly even used! Guess that says a lot about them, now doesn’t it? Let’s see who I can visit tonight…