It’s almost summer, and in the South that means sitting on a porch visiting with friends and relatives. Yes, some of us still do that. I recall many delightful childhood memories of sitting on the porches of relatives. My favorite porch was that of my great aunt and uncle, Marcella (I called her Aunt Martie) Billups Richards and Dr. John Richards. It was a wonderful, almost never-ending porch at the 1889 Billups home at 905 Main St. in Columbus.

There, rather than mint juleps, the favorite adult beverages were bourbon on the rocks or sweet tea. For the children the beverage varied with the porch. At 905 Main, a very tasty concoction of 2/3 tea and 1/3 orange juice or just sweet tea was served, but at my great-uncle T. Bailey Hardy’s porch at the Cedars on Military Road, it was 6-ounce bottles of Coke for children.

At Whitehall, and later on Billups Drive, my Grandmother made the Whitehall mint julep that she served Eudora Welty or her “Iced Tea for Ten.” Her tea was “Start with a quart of unsweetened tea and add juice of six lemons, juice of two oranges, one pound of sugar (to taste). Just before serving add a bottle of ginger ale.”

Of course there had to be snacks. At both the Cedars and 905 Main, there were toasted pecans and cheese straws. However, at the Cedars, Aunt Mary Ita Hardy would make almost paper-thin tea cookies baked with a pecan on top. Sometimes my mother would make what she called a cocktail sandwich. They were made from raisin bread with the edges cut off and cut in strips. On it, she spread cream cheese containing finely diced green pepper with a dash of cayenne pepper. An unusual but delicious treat.

What really made porches so special in the summer were the family stories that were told. I recall when I was around 10 years old, Uncle John Richards, who had been a prominent doctor in New York, asked me who my hero was. I said, “Roy Chapman Andrews, who fought off bandits in the Gobi Desert when he discovered the first dinosaur eggs.” Uncle John smiled and said, “He was a good friend of mine. Would you like to hear some of his stories?” I heard those stories and many others sitting on that porch.

Uncle John’s stories always fascinated me. He was one of the doctors called to tend to the survivors of the Titanic when the rescue ship, the Carpathia, arrived in New York. He had a world of stories about the Titanic and friends who were lost. He also had entertaining stories of the experiences of a native of Columbus in New York City during the early 1900s.

One of Uncle John’s best stories was an occurrence that took place at a hospital in New York some 100 years ago. In the hospital, he had a first-floor office looking out on a park. Two nurses overheard some doctors discussing an unusual case. It turned out the patient suffered from a form of leprosy that had not been seen in New York in years, and it had taken the doctors several weeks to make a diagnosis. One of the doctors commented, “That Dr. Richards thinks he is such a hot shot. Let’s take the patient to his office for a consultation and see how long it takes him to realize what it is.”

The nurses then quickly hurried down to Richards’ office and told him what was afoot. Richards took off his shoes, propped his sock feet on his desk and started reading a newspaper. Soon a knock came at the door. He responded, “Come in.” The two doctors brought the patient in and Richards could see a crowd of doctors and nurses beginning to gather in the hall outside his door.

The doctors said they had an unusual case they would like to consult with him on. Richards, never putting down the newspaper, said that would be fine. The doctors responded asking if he needed to put the paper down and make an examination. Richards replied he first just needed to ask a few questions.

After asking about 10 questions and with his head still buried in the newspaper, Richards said, “Well, that narrows it down to only two or three things.” He then put down the paper, squinted at the patient, put on his glasses, adjusted the glasses, and screamed “Oh my gosh! It’s leprosy!” He quickly stood up, turned, jumped out of his office window and started running across the park in his sock feet.

The two doctors and their rather unsettled patient then left the office, and as they passed through the wide-eyed crowd in the hallway, were heard to say, “That SOB is every bit as good as he claims to be.”

One of Uncle John’s most entertaining stories was of a fox hunt. After the United States entered World War I, one of his Columbus friends, Dr. Jim Cox, arrived in New York. He was in the Army and about to be shipped overseas. Uncle John, knowing Dr. Cox liked to hunt, asked him if he would like to go on a fox hunt. When Cox responded that he would, an invitation was extended to a “high society” fox hunt on Long Island.

On the day of the hunt, Cox showed up wearing Army fatigues and barefoot. He was asked if he could be fitted with some “reds” and riding boots and could select a horse. He replied no thanks and that he would just “run with the dogs.” Uncle John said that as it was a Long Island society hunt, he did not think he could be any more embarrassed. He was wrong. Later, he asked another hunter if he had seen Dr. Cox, and the hunter said yes, that he had seen Cox running on foot leading the pack of dogs after the fox. To top the cake, the hunter then said, “Didn’t you hear your friend cornered the fox before the hounds could get there?” With a laugh, Uncle John said he never knew if Dr. Cox really hunted that way at home or was just putting on a show for New York society.

Oh what wonderful stories were told on that front porch at 905 Main.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].