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 April 2005 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Literature The View From the Porch By Colleen Maroney Fahey In everyone’s life there are places, objects, a certain smell, always a song, which touches off a long forgotten memory. It comes out of the blue. You’re walking through the market past a bushel of fresh picked apples and suddenly you’re back in your grandmother’s kitchen, or on your now-grown son’s first kindergarten field trip. It comes quite unexpectedly, adding a layer of pleasure or melancholy to an ordinary day. The trick is calling them back at will, as time and life intervene, pushing them onto some forgotten shelf, waiting, sometimes in vain, to be called back, enjoyed and shared. Some, distrusting chance, create markers to summon back these pleasures of childhood and adolescence, of first love and shared secrets, of departed friends and loved family. Angelo Daluisio has done just that. Born in Buffalo, and presently living in Lancaster with his wife Pam, Angelo is a Technology Education Teacher at Orchard Park High School. Throughout his life, he has worn many hats: building inspector, contractor, woodworker, parent, teacher — and, now, author. Setting out to make a diary to hand down to his daughters, his idea of using porches as his memory markers, soon grew into a book, Porch Passages. As a fellow porch enthusiast, I was immediately intrigued when I heard about the book. To my great pleasure I found that we also shared a childhood neighborhood. Growing up in South Buffalo, where the streets were shaded by giant Elms, and porches were the only “family room” for the all too brief summers — the front porch was where it was happening. We spent countless hours hanging out, talking, laughing and building dreams. As a carpenter, Daluisio now wraps his homes with welcoming porches (as he says “freeing the soul”). These porches, and those of his childhood, become the touchstones of his personal history. As he builds his porches, he builds his story: memory upon memory, weaving a fabric of universal themes — love, regrets and remembrances. His vignettes, poignant, funny, and sentimental, draw you in with a familiarity, so that if you were to meet him today you’d probably ask “How are the girls doing?” There is a wonderful casualness about his stories — just a couple of friends hanging around on the porch reminiscing, sharing a glass of lemonade or a beer. Angelo Daluisio has created a special gift for his daughters. And for the rest of us? It makes you thinking about your own porches — and the people who lived behind them, or that stopped to say hello or share a story. Memories resurface: an added gift. back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |