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 'haints' 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.