Porches are part of the Southern legacy of east Texans.

Europeans arriving in the 16th century built houses much as they had known them in former homelands, but the length and intensity of Southern summers drove them outdoors, especially if there was a shade by day and a breeze in the evening.

Southerners learned to build houses with as much ventilation as possible, including the familiar dogtrot (or breezeway) cabin or house, so all four sides had exposure to outside air - especially where the cabins shared a roof that created the breezeway between them.

When houses grew larger, porches front and back and sometimes wrapped all the way around, took the place of the breezeway.

Porches expanded living space at less expense than interior construction and provided a workplace for activities too untidy for inside or cooler than the kitchen where woodburning, and later kerosene-burning, stoves, cooked meals.

Even in the 1930s and 1940s, Southerners sat on porches to churn butter, shell peas, snap and string green beans, skin squirrels, sharpen knives or axes, mend or repair, shine shoes for Sunday, or perform almost any chore required, whether rural or urban.

That list of porch activities, including courting by the young and eligible, made a well-placed swing desirable.

Cowhide bottom rockers worked best for the rest. Over time, the hair would be worn from the hide by hours of occupancy by visitors, and the wooden frame, even if varnished at some earlier time, grew dark with age.

Those who study such matters claim that a porch is neutral territory where visitors may be received who might not be welcome in the house - such as bill collectors.

But a porch, and perhaps the kitchen - are also the heart of a home, its most intimate meeting place for a family.

To be received in either, rather than retained in a formal parlor, is to extend acceptance to an acquaintance.

Porches are making a comeback in the modern South.

A school of architecture known as New Urbanism advocate the porch - and particularly the front porch - to reduce energy consumption (electric lights, air conditioning) by a family spending more time outside than inside, and to increase security.

Sitting on a porch automatically makes people Neighborhood Watchmen, and their presence keeps children, seniors, and the neighbor's property more secure.

Porch sitters may or may not be aware of such advantages. For most, the activity requires no justification because it is self-filling.

And for busy folks, that rocking chair lets one sit, rest, and keep moving at the same time.

Add a cool breeze and beverage - such as sweetened iced tea - and as Phil Harris once sang, "That's what I like about the South."

Archie P. McDonald is a professor of history and community at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.