Front Porch Philosophy
Sweet Tea: The Wine of the South
There are certain things that tell you you’re in the South long before you ever see a road sign. Kudzu on the power lines. A porch swing that’s been there longer than the house. And […]
Articles by Mickey Lee
Front Porch Philosophy
Prophecies From the Feed Store Bible
At some point in Appalachian adulthood, you stop checking the weather app and start consulting the Farmer’s Almanac like it’s a sacred text. I don’t remember when this shift happened, but it was subtle. One […]
Special Features
Remembering the Rainbow Motel and Restaurant
There are places in every small town that do more than sit on the map. They settle into the memory. In Chilhowie, one of those places has always been the Rainbow Motel and Restaurant. Long […]
Front Porch Philosophy
The Unwritten Rules of Mountain Hospitality
Mountain hospitality is a funny thing. Outsiders think it means we’re all sweet tea and porch swings, waving at strangers like we’re in a parade. And sure, we can be friendly. But real mountain hospitality […]
Front Porch Philosophy
Hot Enough to Make a Grown Man Cry
There are hot days, and then there are the kind of hot days like we had last week that make you question whether the sun has a personal grudge against you. I’m talking about the […]
Front Porch Philosophy
My Battle With the Self Checkout
There are battles in life you expect to fight. Traffic. Long lines. The occasional stubborn jar lid. But nothing prepares you for the emotional roller coaster of a self‑checkout machine that decides it no longer […]
Front Porch Philosophy
250 Years of Hope, Hard Work, and Everyday Hands
There is something about the Fourth of July that always makes me slow down a little. Maybe it is the heat settling over the yard like a warm quilt, or the way the cicadas tune […]
Front Porch Philosophy
Bringing Back the Smoke of Summers Past
There was a time when the smell of charcoal drifting through a neighborhood meant something. It meant somebody’s daddy was out in the yard with a metal spatula in his back pocket. It meant kids […]
Special Features
A Cold One From the Carter Years
There are plenty of odd chapters in Southern pop culture, but few are as wonderfully strange as the rise and fall of Billy Beer. It arrived in 1977 with all the subtlety of a marching […]
Front Porch Philosophy
When the Front Porch Was the Heartbeat of a Neighborhood
There was a time when a front porch could tell you everything you needed to know about a place. You could walk down any street in town and hear the soft hum of conversation drifting […]