Another Thing Abby Loves in addition to Trashcans, Zippers, and Lettuce Spinners
There is nothing like an old-fashioned screen door framed in wood that doesn’t always close tightly and goes clop, clop, clop in the summer breeze.
Maybe such a door is found only in the country. I imagine sitting on the front steps of a country store with the old screen door clopping in back of me from time to time. The movement of cool air every so often serves as a fine fan as I sit there looking around, with the screen door as the percussion section of my imaginary symphony. The store carries everything anyone could need – a combined grocery, ice cream parlor, hardware store, newsstand. Every so often someone goes in; every so often someone exits – all adding to the symphonic clopping of a summer day.
Hi Abby - I think you might be right about this kind of screen door being in the country. I remember it well. The owner, Mr. B, lets me pick out the ice cream ( always a Nutty Buddy) from the icebox next to the door. Every time that screen door opens, a story walks in - some news, a problem, someone who needs something, someone who is bored or lonely, someone on the way to somewhere...he lets me sit there as long as I want and watch the stories walk in. When I leave, I take them with me. The other memory you triggered about screen doors is that my great grandmother's house had them on the inside of the house, attached to each bedroom and the dining room. I thought this was odd. This was in the "lowcountry", and my grandmother would tell me it was to help the breezes move through and keep mosquitos out at night. And then, there was the big screen door that led to the side porch on the river. That was the best screen door of all because on the other side of it was the grownup world. They sat on white rattan chairs with their evening bourbon and laughter and secrets, and I could hear it all from where I stood...thanks to the screen door. Screen doors are powerful things. Thanks for the memories...
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From Italy to a country store - you've got quite an imagination. I grew up with a door like that on our back porch - brings back lots of memories.
Jan
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Genevieve, you're right to mention to mosquitoes, which tend to come into the porch during the clops of the screen door. Fortunately, most of the old-fashioned ones had an eye-and-hook latch... But there's nothing like sitting out on the porch in my undershirt, quaffing a beer and having a three-word conversation every twenty mintues, such as "Fireflies out..." "Yup..."
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What a beautiful post--so simple, so transporting, so powerful. What is real to each of us is a reflection of who we are and who we have been.
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