Parties & Porches: Vintage-Style Entertaining: Food, Flowers & Fabulous Women

The next time you're in the South, enjoying that famous Southern hospitality on a covered porch, be sure to look up. You'll see that most porch ceilings here are often painted Carolina Blue, a color that is said to chase away evil spirits known as &quote;haints&quote; and also keeps flying insects at bay. For the Southern girls who grew up on those porches, it was also where they were schooled in the finer points of a well-lived life. Porches served many purposes in the home. On some days, they were gracious outdoor living rooms when company dropped by. On others, they were a lonely outpost after a scolding. But most of all, our porches are where we learned the ins and outs of ladylike behavior; the wonders of linen, cotton, and other natural fibers to keep us fresh as a daisy on hot Southern summer days; and the wisdom of remaining polite even when you felt like exploding all over the place with a sassy comeback to insults both real and imagined.