I recently had the privilege to stay at a log cabin ( the early nineteen hundreds style. ) It was a wonderful experience. We were working on a project out in the country and spent the nights after work in the lovely home. Like stepping back in time we sat on the porch in rocking chairs and slept in 4 poster beds. The bathroom even and a claw foot tub. The wood burning cook stove had been electrified, the refrigerator had been covered in corrugated tin, the dishwasher was concealed in an period cabinet but the feel of a 1900 cabin was there in the wood floors throughout and large fireplace centered in the living room wall.
What caught my attention though was the old screen door. It had a spring attaching it to the door frame and the sound of it hitting the edge of the door frame brought back memories of living on the farm when I was a child. The farm house we lived in had 3 screen doors; one at the front of the house and one on each side off the kitchen. These led into porches one closed in and one open but covered. The screen doors all were attached to the house with a long spring that fitted diagonally across the door. One end attached to a point midway up the side of the door and the other to the lower part of the door frame. When the door was opened the spring would be stretched and cause the door to bounce back and hit the frame with a resounding bang if not caught.
As children are often on the run the door seldom got caught and so the door got slammed several times a day. This noise would get annoying to those who were working in the house. We often heard the phrase “Go in or come out but stop slamming that door.” Some houses of that era were built in a fashion that aligned the house with the front and back door opposite each other. This was called a shotgun house. It was said you could shoot a gun through the front and it would go out the back without hitting anything in-between.
When we visited our friends that lived in such a house the kids would chase each other in the front and out the back until the moms would banish them from the house to stop the slamming of the door.
It is amazing how simple sounds, smells, or even songs can prompt long forgotten memories.
I hope your childhood memories are pleasing and take you back for a while to a place where the hustle and bustle of daily life can be forgotten even for a little while.
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