Well, I Remember JFK has uncovered yet another conspiracy theory. Recall that we revealed that wing vent windows were surreptitiously phased out by auto air conditioning manufacturers. Well, faithful readers, we have blown the cover off of yet another cabal by those who sell equipment designed for artificial environmental cooling: the demise of the screen door.
The above paragraph is written tongue-in-cheekingly. Please, no nutcases need respond ;-)
When we were kids, wooden screen doors were everywhere. Moonwink Grocery in Miami, Oklahoma had one. It may have had a Rainbo Bread advertisement, advising all who would enter that it was GOOD bread. Or perhaps it was Bunny bread, a locally-baked rival.
But it was definitely there, providing a reassuring "thunk!" every time a customer walked in or out. It was a sound that I must have heard hundreds of times, and I would dearly love to return in time to hear it again.
But that's what our imaginations are for. So please, read on as I magically transport you to an era when we passed through screen doors many times a day in our travels.
The utility of screen doors was undeniable. Have one at the north and south ends of a house, and you had yourself a wonderful breeze providing fresh air, cooler temperatures, and a dearth of flies. Metallic screening used in screen doors and windows was patented on April 22, 1884 by John Golding of Chicago, Illinois. Prior to that, people bought lots more flyswatters.
By the time I was in the process of being a kid in the 1960's, old-style screen doors were already being supplanted one at a time in private homes with aluminum storm doors. My childhood home had one of the newfangled models which, if I recall correctly, was installed by my father as an add-on.
But my grandparents, who lived in the Mason, Texas house that they bought as newlweds early in the 20th century, had screen doors on all sides. They were equipped with holder gadgets that would grab the door when it shut. I was fascinated by the mechanisms, as I had never seen them anywhere else in my youthful experience. In researching this article, however, I see that they are still out there, looking much like the models that my grandparents probably purchased when Babe Ruth was a pitcher for the Red Sox.
Air conditioning was still a luxury for many homes and businesses in the 60's. Moonwink Grocery, which was probably built prior to WWII, had none. So on a hot summer day, the screen door provided some cooling relief, along with fans placed everywhere. It wasn't much, but it felt like it was back then.
In dryer environments, evaporative coolers worked hand-in-hand with screen doors to provide fresh cooled air that was exhausted through strategically placed openings in the house that allowed the sweet relief to pass through every section.
But as the 60's turned into the 70's, air conditioning became cheaper. Businesses in old unrefrigerated buildings either remodeled or relocated. Moonwink, sadly, was razed and fourplexes were put up on its corner lot. More sadly, the wonderful corner grocery didn't bother to relocate.
And with homes no longer needing to let the slightly-cooler-than-a-hot-summer-day breeze blow through, screen doors became obsolete.
That leads us to today, Wooden screen doors on the fronts of houses are as scarce as quality reality television. Some exist on the back sides of homes, primarily proving ingress and egress to screened-in porches. But by and large, we now walk into our homes and businesses through glass doors.
So the next time you daydream about being a kid in a much simpler time, don't forget to shut the screen door tight behind you. We don't want those flies to get in.
Comments (7)
We had wooden screen doors much like the one pictured, however my grandparent’s wooden screen doors had fancy wooden panels sporting intricate fretwork designs. Some of the screening material was ordinary steel and would be subject to rusting, where the galvanized type would last much longer. A disturbing development (to me) is the ubiquitous nylon material all too often encountered on screens today but aluminum and coated mesh is also common (my cat has destroyed the aluminum bathroom screen.)
What really fascinated me was the long spring that supplied the automatic closing mechanism. I sprung some out of scientific curiosity and was dutifully punished for the misdeed. The spring was responsible for the expanding scri-i-itch, rising musical tone and dénouement pitch descending to the “reassuring thunk” that to me sounded more like a sharp thwack which could be heard all over the house and would invariably elicit the “don’t slam the door” or “in or out – if you come in again, you’re staying in” response from wherever my mother happened to be.
After the summer there was always the ritual of removing the screen doors and replacing them with storm doors, first cleaning the mullioned glass in doors and the storm windows with pink Johnson’s Glass Wax. After those days I lived in houses which had the combination all weather storm doors with the pneumatic cylinder damping mechanism which solved the loud slamming thwack of the old wooden screen doors.
I never had air conditioning until about 10 years ago which my wife (hot flashes) is always running right up to winter. I prefer the natural breeze and/or oscillating fan and find the conditioned air unpleasant (especially the electric bills) but compromise is one of the hallmarks of a peaceful marriage.
Posted by Burt | November 26, 2008 6:08 PM
Posted on November 26, 2008 18:08
I don't know about you but I never "shut" a screen door or knew anybody else that did. It was always a slam, mainly because of the spring on the door and we were always in a hurry. Our poor parents; slam, slam, and slam! I could really make it loud if I was mad at my brother.
Posted by Linda Carrico | November 26, 2008 7:30 PM
Posted on November 26, 2008 19:30
This, and the one on evaporative coolers are great posts! I said on my own site in 2004:
In dog day Tulsa summers of yore, before air conditioning was affordable, the water cooler (now called a swamp cooler or evaporative cooler) was popular. It consisted of a large fan (looking as if it could be internally powered by a large rodent) which pulled the hot outside air through dripping pads kept soaked by a water pump, and blew the cooled air inside.
It was fun to get in front of the blower and adjust the vertical metal louvers to hit you full in the face; there was a distinctive sound and smell (from the wet pads, no doubt). I'm trying to remember the brand we had, maybe Artic or Olympic...
Posted by Mike Ransom | November 28, 2008 9:07 AM
Posted on November 28, 2008 09:07
I have to admit, as a child we had the aluminum doors with screens in them and glass in the wintertime. We live in a victorian style house and use real wooden screen doors with the gingerbread trim! Harder and harder to find these days. We try not to slam our doors as it does wear and tear to much! I do remember my grandmothers house having them way back then! She also had the removable screened wooden windows too!
Posted by Rivers End | January 2, 2009 6:39 PM
Posted on January 2, 2009 18:39
We had a wooden screen door on the back porch that came with the house, but along with back porch Hurricane Katrina took it. At least we still have our house though, thats the main thing. :)
Posted by katekat | March 22, 2009 6:40 PM
Posted on March 22, 2009 18:40
Yeah, screen doors were very common. Both sets of grandparents had them. We had them on our apt. doors., front and back. They were replaced in fall/winter with glass pane sections kept in the basement. I have a picture of the door with the glass panes in place, rather than the screen. When we got our own home, the aluminum door also had a removeable/ changeable screen/window section. That sort of thing continued through the 80s for us. We did get an air conditioner about 1975 or 76. Maine was not often hot but that year, we hit 105 on one Sat. and 101 on Sunday. That is unheard of in Maine. In 1988, we had 90s for 40 days straight. 88 was a killer summer for most states. It continued hotter than usual until about 93 and now, starting about 2003, is much cooler like it used to commonly be in Maine before 88.
Funny how screens were so much an integral part of that life of less tech but more humane. Long live the 60s always!
Posted by Scott Irv | June 9, 2009 12:48 AM
Posted on June 9, 2009 00:48
Then you also had that black ball on a rod to stop the slamming. Never worked as door was always heavier!
Posted by David Chapman | June 14, 2009 8:05 PM
Posted on June 14, 2009 20:05