Rocking Chair Porch

A touching and funny memoir of a young boy growing up in New Jersey, and his journey through adulthood.

In 1700, a young man named John Lawson left London and landed in Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to make a name for himself. For reasons unknown, he soon undertook a two-month journey through the still-mysterious Carolina backcountry. His travels yielded A New Voyage to Carolina in 1709, one of the most significant early American travel narratives, rich with observations about the region's environment and Indigenous people. Lawson later helped found North Carolina's first two cities, Bath and New Bern; became the colonial surveyor general; contributed specimens to what is now the British Museum; and was killed as the first casualty of the Tuscarora War. Yet despite his great contributions and remarkable history, Lawson is little remembered, even in the Carolinas he documented. In 2014, Scott Huler made a surprising decision: to leave home and family for his own journey by foot and canoe, faithfully retracing Lawson's route through the Carolinas. This is the chronicle of that unlikely voyage, revealing what it's like to rediscover your own home. Combining a traveler's curiosity, a naturalist's keen observation, and a writer's wit, Huler draws our attention to people and places we might pass regularly but never really see. What he finds are surprising parallels between Lawson's time and our own, with the locals and their world poised along a knife-edge of change between a past they can't forget and a future they can't quite envision.

Radio commentator and author Kathryn Tucker Windham shares recollections from her childhood and the many years of living in the South, particularly Thomasville, Ala.

Grandma invited me to spend two weeks with her each summer. They were special times in the late 1940's and early 1950's before life got too complicated. This memoir was inspired by a writing contest sponsored by Reminsce magazine. It's the second time I revisited the Grandma theme, perhaps instigated by the births of my own grandbabies during the last three years. Originally, I wrote a piece called Coxsackie Oak, found as part of my full-length memoir named Bless You Bouquets, published in 2013. Enjoy the read, and reflect on times spent with your loved ones. Hopefully, it will remind you of times you'd like to write about as well.

A complete architectural guide to this well-loved building feature

People used to have Big Wrap around porch's, after a hard day's work they would set in their Rocking Chairs and relax, watching the Sun go down, telling all the great stories. Now with modern A/c everyone is going inside, the Rocking chairs are now padded Recliners the Stories live on. Tell me another Story Grandpa?

The Barrett family had owned three of the largest plantations in Georgia before the Civil War. Near the end of the war, they had to flee their homes. They settled in Massachusetts, eventually owning vast textile mills. Liz, the daughter of Kathleen and Isaac Barrett, was born in Massachusetts in eighteen eighty. Her father died when she was very young and her mother married his younger brother, Harley, when Liz was ten. She always knew of her mother's love for Georgia and they visited the homeland, to find only one dilapidated plantation house left standing. When she was sixteen, she lost her mother who was buried in the old family cemetery in Jenz Bridge, Georgia. Liz was left with a stepfather who turned to alcohol and after two years of indecision and grieving, she went to Georgia to begin restoration of the house. There she married and had a son. It was a perfect marriage until a secret was uncovered that nearly destroyed her marriage and her life. Through an accident, her life was restored. Now, Liz sits and happily looks upon her loved ones and remembers how close she came to loosing all this forever.