There are some sounds that snap me back to childhood summers. The music from a passing ice cream truck. The song we used to play over and over at the pool. The sound of a wooden screen door slamming against the frame.
Screen doors, for you apartment-dwelling urbanites, are a feature of rural and suburban homes designed to keep the bugs out of the house.
Screen doors allow the flow and mingling of the indoors and outdoors. The best screen doors are the gateway from the kitchen to the back yard.
New models are often made of fiberglass, aluminum, or — offensively — plastic. Modern screen doors have hydraulic arms that prevent them from slamming. But it’s only the old wood-framed doors that banged shut with a satisfying THUD as you run outside with a Popsicle.
A screen door creates a boundary yet allows a connection — and isn’t that just the perfect relationship, after all?