Sleeping Porches

One of the stories that Robbie finds incredulous, is the one I tell her about how I used to sleep in a bed on an unheated sleeping porch when I was growing up in Jefferson City. She considers this to be cruel and unusual, but I think there were many of my generation that did so - winter and summer - and it never ever occurred to me that one would find this so unusual. So I've been wracking my old brain to come up with reasons we did this and I'm coming up short on rationale.
I suppose it was considered healthy to sleep out in the fresh air that wasn't super dried by the heating systems of the day. I sure can't think of any other reasons but I just took it for granted that this was normal. Am I completely out in left field or can anyone provide additional reasons why this was done? I know a few others who had similar sleeping arrangements but for the life of me I don't know why.

My next door neighbor Bobby Bush and I both slept on sleeping porches which were situated upstairs and to the rear of our adjoining houses on Waverly Street, separated only by a driveway. I remember we strung up a tin-can telephone system across the divide and through the screens and we would chatter back and forth over this contraption until my Mother would poke her head out there and say it's time to go to sleep now. I wonder if any of our younger generations could imagine such a crude communications medium. It seemed like a pure wonder at the time.

It was always cold out there in the winter and we dressed pretty warm in getting ready for bed. Then came the Sears & Roebuck catalog that had been sitting on the warm radiator all day. That we placed in the bed to warm it up before we got in. With the warm catalog and the heavy layer of blankets, body heat soon took over and the bed was quite comfortable for sleeping in the cold.
If you kept your nose out from under the covers too long on very cold nights it could get a bit cold, I remember.

On another subject, I received E-mail saying that when trying to post a comment on this web site, the poster was restricted for lack of a password. I've done a bit of checking and the only way around this is to post under the anonymous field but it would be appreciated if doing so you would identify yourself in the body of your comments. I haven't found any other way around this roadblock as yet. It seems passwords are only available if you have registered to create your own Blog and I guess it makes sense since most Blog sites are set up for public viewing and posters have to have registered & obtained a password to participate. Anonymous is one way to circumvent that restriction.

Wishing all a happy start on a happy new year.

© 2005 David Agniel