Aiken County woman keeps good company with porch dolls

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Out in Petticoat Junction in Aiken, there is a house with almost 20 people always sitting on the porch watching the traffic go by.

These aren’t real people ... they’re porch people.

“It’s very enjoyable sitting out here rocking, and just waving with a nice cold glass of tea,” said Priscilla Langford.

Every time she goes on her porch, she has company.

“This is my extended family, my porch dolls,” she said.

Langford has almost 20 of them, and they all have a story.

“They’re a lovely lovely happy couple,” she said as she showed us the different dolls.

She then introduces us to a couple of them.

“This is Simon,” said Langford. “This is William. They’re engaged so we’re gonna have a nice wedding this summer.”

But why do so many porch people call her porch home? It started more than a decade ago.

“I went in the store, and I seen a Frankenstein they had made, and I looked at it and studied it and said, ‘Well, if they can make it, I can, too,’” said Langford.

So, she got to work, found a face, sewed some old clothes, and created her first porch doll. She hasn’t stopped since.

“It just excites my soul. I just love doing it,” she said.

Langford says her porch is well-known in the community.

“This is like a landmark,” she said.

People stop by all the time to say hello and take pictures. For her, it’s all worth it.

“Makes me happy for me to be able to make someone else happy,” she said.

If you want to see her porch people be on the lookout in Aiken County on Silver Bluff Road near Highway 278.

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