Sarah Thompson
“What happened to screen doors?”
I can still hear Granny: “Boy, stop slamming that screen door!”
How many of us have heard that?
I drive by houses nowadays, and there aren’t any screen doors. It got me wondering, what happened to them?
Do you remember going to your friend’s house after school, standing outside on the porch and knocking on the screen door?
The smell of fried chicken would be coming from the kitchen. Your friend’s mother would answer the door, wiping her hands on her apron. She would call out to your friend, “So-and-so is here!”
She would unlatch the screen door and invite you in, asking how your parents or siblings were doing before telling you, “Your friend is in their room,” or, “Have a seat on the couch. They’ll be right out.”
You didn’t have to call ahead. You just showed up.
After the sun set, you might be watching The Andy Griffith Show, MASH*, or Granny’s favorite wrestling.
The glow from the TV would attract June bugs that would land on the screen and creep and crawl around.
Or you could look outside and see the lightning bugs putting on their own little light show.
What happened to screen doors?
Most of us are so busy or preoccupied with our cell phones that, if we did have a screen door, we probably wouldn’t enjoy it. Neighbors used to come over unannounced. They would knock on the door and shout, “Will! It’s Betty!” Then they would just walk on in.
Nowadays, when someone knocks on our door, we look around surprised, asking, “Who could that be?”
Or we peek through the curtains like we’re hiding from the FBI.
Times have certainly changed.
Maybe we didn’t just lose the screen door. Maybe we lost what came with it.
We lost the unexpected visits, the porch conversations, the kids showing up after school, and the simple pleasure of sitting around and talking with family, friends, and neighbors.
So tell me… What happened to screen doors?
