“When angry count four; when very angry, swear.”
Gracie wanted out about 6:30, and I obliged. It was gray and overcast. I went back to bed. When I woke up at 8, the sky had miraculously turned blue and the sun was shining. It’s such a lovely day I took my outside shower then sat on the deck for a while. I have designated today put the screen in the back door day, the surest sign of summer.
When I was a kid, the storm windows went up every winter and came down in the spring. My father would climb a ladder and curse a lot as he tried to hold on to the ladder and unhook the storms from the windows at the same time. One of us was on bottom of the ladder duty, and he’d hand the storm window to the duty officer waiting below who would then hand him the screen. The screens slid in and that too was often cause for cursing. They had to be placed exactly in the right spot or they wouldn’t slide. The storms and the screens had wooden frames. The storms were painted white and the screens green. The front and back doors too had painted green wooden screens. I remember how much they slammed shut all summer despite my mother telling us not to let the door slam. We always heard her too late. We were usually already running down the back stairs. She wanted to know how times she had to tell us before we’d remember. We had no idea.
When I bought my house, it came with storm windows and doors. The storm windows slid down in the winter and up in the summer. The screens took the opposite journey. It was easy, no ladder or cursing for me. I just opened the inside window, pushed in the locks on each side of the bottom of the storm and slid the storm window up to its summer position. The screens had no locks and slid down easily. Over time, though, the metal locks seemed to harden, and it got harder and harder to push in and hold them. My fingers usually stung, and I’d finally get to curse. The windows, especially the den window facing north, were drafty despite the storms. It was time for a change.
The windows I have now never need sliding, and the screen is permanently down. In the winter all I do is shut the windows and make sure they’re locked. No more cursing, at least not at the windows!
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: cursing, screens, storm windows
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 4, 2010 at 11:23 am
Great memories! I remember my Dad doing the same thing & probably swearing the same swears! It was a tough job. Glad we don’t have to do it now!
June 4, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Clare,
I’m so glad we don’t have to do it, but I’d be prone to hire Skip!
I can still see my father on the ladder leaning against the side of the house.
June 4, 2010 at 12:08 pm
We had those windows, too. They hung from hooks at the top of the window and got screwed in along the sides. I always wanted my windows off at the end of March because I liked fresh air. My father didn’t want to do it so one year I did. The north window was easy because there was a roof right underneath that I could stand on to remove the storm window. The east window was two stories up over concrete steps and iron railings. It was scary but I managed it. The following year I figured out that if I was very, very careful, I could remove the east window from the inside and pull it through into my room. There was a dicey spot just after lifting the window off the hooks where I would have to use all my strength to keep from dropping it before I got it braced against the sill. I never dropped it though.
Now I have the aluminum combo windows that have to be slid up or down. They seize up now and then but I don’t swear. I just get the hammer and screw driver. It beats hanging out a window two stories up.
June 4, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Caryn,
I remembered the hooks but not the screws. Thanks for the memory!
That was pretty brave standing on the roof. Smart on bringing it into your room through the window. Like you, I’d have been a bit leery of the concrete.
I have double paned vinyl. They replaced the aluminum.
June 4, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Back in the days when most windows were single glass they always put in an extra window during winter here, but they were on the inside of the window. So much easier to get them in place then 🙂 I still have two such windows in my cottage, but I never remove those indoors windows, they stay all year.
Screen doors is something we really should have here, especially we that live out here in the country side. That would leave most of the flies outside. I´ve been thinking of making some, but I am as handy as a dead badger 🙂
Sunny and warm here today, but the winds made it easier to mowe the lawn. We´ll have this weather at least over the week end 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
June 4, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Christer,
Always the storms are outside here. The screens too are outside the window.
I love having screens. The house stays clear of bugs though I can hear the big ones, the June bugs, hitting the screen. They’ll be here soon for a while. They drive the cats crazy.
It was the most perfect day today.
June 4, 2010 at 7:15 pm
We never bought shutters for this house. I figured brick on concrete block, long overhang porch on the front, same on the back, it would really take a hurricane wind of 150 mph to get to the windows and glass door. On the south side is our three car oversized garage with workshop for me. That all closes with the heavy garage doors. So I chose not to bother and so far, so good. After 10 years and three hurricanes, we’re still here.
June 4, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Z&Me,
We only have decorate shutters so our windows are at the mercy of the storms. We have been lucky with no hurricanes the last two years, and I’d like it to stay that way.