Meaning of “sat out in front”

Question

The judge rapped. “Objection sustained.”

The next question came like an explosion through the close air of the courtroom. “Mrs. Lee, did you see the accident in which your husband met his death?”

The woman nodded yes. Her reply was lost in the sudden stir and scuffling as people moved forward. “Tell the court what you saw.”

“Well,” said Esther Lee, “Joseph had gone to Union. He drove there everyday because he had good customers there. I sat out in front, always, to watch for him. I always used to do that, when he fished at Barnegat_” Archie Stolt’s lawyer was on his feet, but the prosecutor motioned him into his chair. “Tell only about the accident, please,” he said to Esther Lee.

Esther Lee’s blue eyes were wet. “I watched Joseph’s old car come around a bend in the road,” she said slowly, “and he was on the right side of the road. And then the red car came from the other way- on the wrong side of the road. And-Joseph’s car swung out toward the middle-to try and miss it, I guess. But the other car swung out, too…. They hit. That’s all, sir. But the red car was on the wrong side of...”

I want to know the meaning of "sat out in front". Dose it mean: I waited and watched him from far distance?

Answer 1

To sit out front [of a building or structure]. Usually, in a car or vehicle but could also be on a bench too or other structure in front of something. But we don't know how far away from the structure the person was in the story.

This is confusing because there is Union Beach, a town in Jersey, and Barnegat on Long Island, NY and in New Jersey.

Union Beach, NJ is on the "Jersey shore" and there is a Barnegat Light House there and there is also Barnegat Bay on Long Island, in New York state.

However, I think here it is referring to the Jersey Shore due to the word Union. ' It's funny because I know these places pretty well......

Here is the lighthouse, at Ocean Beach, New Jersey, the Barnegut Lighthouse State Par. Barnegut Lighthouse