Neighborhood keeping “porch party” tradition going with a little social distancing twist

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    MOBILE, AL (WALA) — Neighbors in Midtown Mobile are taking just 30 minutes to loosen up, turn up the music, grab a drink and take their mind off the madness.

The catch? You don’t have to leave your front porch!

“Music is a part of celebration and so having this event together today is just a point of celebrating the neighborhood, celebrating our life, celebrating our health and celebrating the fact that we’re gonna beat this virus,” said Janet Rich Pittman.

Janet Rich Pittman says porch parties aren’t new to the Oakleigh Garden District.

It’s a tradition that’s gone on for years with neighbors gathering on one porch to soak up eachothers company.

But this time around the music is way louder and everyone either sticks to their own porch, or keeps their distance, as they mind social distancing.

Pittman says she walked nearly 10 blocks surrounding South Georgia Avenue Wednesday and passed out about 100 invitations to her neighborhood porch party.

Dozens of neighbors taking just half an hour to bond this afternoon.

“This exemplifies the spirit of who we are as Mobilians,” said Cooper Trent.

Their porch party tradition is much more precious now.

“You gotta have that human connection. You just can’t sit around and isolate yourself all the time. We understand the importance of it and keeping your social distancing and all that, but you gotta have some human reaction or you’ll go slap nuts crazy,” said Jimmy Webb.

Pittman plans to host a 30-minute porch party every Friday and encourages other neighborhoods to find a way to stay connected too.

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