Posted by Erica on Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Replacement, Garage Door Installation, Garage Door Service, garage door prices
Today I took a walk through the park (and let me say, halleujah that it's getting warmer here, because I was about to lose my mind with all the snow and wind and rain.) and trying to find someone who looked like the might be amenable to wanting to talk to me about a few survey questions. That is, about garage doors.
I saw cute little kids running in that ridiculous big-headed way they have where it looks like they might tip over at any minute. I saw weird people with dogs. I saw some teenagers.
I saw a youngish looking woman, who was sitting at a park bench and sort of half-heartedly perusing an old newspaper.
"Excuse me," I said, and she looked up.
"Would you mind answering a very quick survey for me?" I held up my clipboard helpfully, hoping it would make me more official. It worked.
"Sure thing. What's this about?"
"Well," I said, "I really only have one question for you, and this is it: how do you feel about garage doors?"
She gave me the "huh?" expression everyone does at that question.
"I'm not really sure I'm affected by them on an emotional level."
"Just say the first thing that pops into your head," I suggested.
"Well. I always think of transformers when I think of garages. I don't even particularly like those movies, and I barely remember watching the show in the nineties. But I can't help but think, every single time, of the phrase 'autobots, roll out!'" She giggles charmingly. "That's probably not the kind of answer you were looking for, but that's all I really feel about them."
I nod enthusiastically. "No, that's wonderful. THank you so much for your time."
She laughs. "No, thank you. I've never told anybody that before."
Posted by Erica on Monday, 28 March 2011
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Replacement, Garage Door Installation, Garage Door Service, garage door prices
I asked another university student this afternoon what his opinions were on garage doors. Like many before him (and I'm sure many after him), he gave me a quick, quizzical eyebrow raise before answering, as if to say "what? why are you... okay. Um?"
It is very interesting to me that this is an issue few consider. They take it for granted. It's not that I believe so strongly that garage doors are in themselves inherently more important than any other aspect of daily life- it's that people tend to NOT SEE objects around them at all. No one thinks about lamps. Or window panes. Same thing with garage doors. And it is simply fascinating to quiz them like this on an aspect of their lives that they never ever ponder deeply.
So this university student. He pulled fown his headphones and zipped up his jacket absent-mindedly.
"Hmm. Let me think. I guess I don't really have an opinion on them."
I encouraged him to answer from as basic a standpoint as possible. It's not a value question, it's simply a "what do you think of when you think of garage doors?" question.
"I guess," he said, "they make me think of home. My parents' home. Where I grew up. My driveway, coming home like that every day, day in day out, for eighteen years. Before I came here. I guess I've had a pretyt stable life, now that I think about it. Not very many people are as lucky as me in that respect."
He gave me a softer smile now, a thinking smile. As if I had set him down in front of a much beloved Monet painting and patted him on the back.
"That's interesting," he said softly. "I miss home."
I thanked him for his time and he said, no. Thank you.
Posted by Erica on Friday, 25 March 2011
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Replacement, Garage Door Installation, Garage Door Service, garage door prices
The word "garage door" doesn't stretch that far back into history as we use it today, but its roots begin centuries ago. The word "garage" is from the French garage, a shelter fora vehicle, originally "a place for storing objects", which is itself originally from the French verb garer, which means "to shelter". This comes from Middle French, garer, which means "to shelter, or dock ships," which comes from the Frank. *waron, which means "to guard". Similarly, the Old German *waron, which means "to take care". These come from the Proto-Germanic prefix *war-, which is based on the Proto-Indo European base *wer-, which means "to cover". Essentially, garage means to cover, or to shelter.
The first appearance of the words as we know it today is documented in 1902, from an Athletic Club Journal in New York, wherein they explain about the club's builging a new "garage", which, according to the author, is an automobile stable. Fully one hundred of the club members owned an automobile, sothe novel design should come in handy. It was the first of its kind in the country.
The word "door", on the other hand, is a combination of Middle English and the Old English "dor", which meant "gate", and "duru", which meant "door, gate, wicket". These both find their roots in the Proto-Germanic *dur-, which itself came from the Proto-Indo European *dhwer-, which signified a doorway, a door, or a gate. Similarly, in old Greek, *thura meant gate, and in Gaul doro meant "mouth". Old Sanskrit used dvárah for door, and old Persian used duvara.
So the term garage door is an amalgamation of meanings from across time and all across the world, from the Persian Empire to Gaulic tribes to snooty city country clubs. The history of words can really tell you something about them.
Posted by ESP on Thursday, 24 March 2011
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Replacement, Garage Door Installation, Garage Door Service, garage door prices
Garage Door Interviews
Today, I talked to a homeowner named Trent Hodgison who had some rather unusual things to say about his garage door, and garage doors in general.
"Automatic garage door openers are a perfect example of exactly what is so great, and what is so terrible, about our country," he told me, sipping a chipped cup of coffee and nibbling on a stale biscuit. "It's the beauty of laziness and the ugliness of convenience all rolled into one. The fact that garage door openers also make this powerful, almost animal moaning and groaning noise while operating just emphasizes this."
He elaborated on this point for a while, served me more Blue Hawaiian coffee and offering me some Bailey's with a wink. I declined.
"You approach your home, and in order to pass through the threshold you don't merely step across, as humans have done so for eons and millennium and generations. Instead, you ride a vehicle up to the threshold, press a button, and enter your home before you exit your vehicle. It's a most curious method of arrival."
I ask him, well, what about people who don't actually park their cars in their garages, or whose garages aren't attached to their homes?
"Well that's even more fascinating!" He exclaims. "Then it's almost as if your garage has simple become another room in your house, or even a separate sub-home within the property of your home. And then the automatic large door is rather useless, isn't it? You're not putting a car in there, what do you need that big old door for? Use the regular sized door."
"These things are truly fascinating technologies. I really do think that they have changed the way we engage with our houses and regard our homes. We don't think about it, but the change is there."
Posted by ESP on Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Replacement, Garage Door Installation, Garage Door Service, garage door prices
When interviewed about garage doors, most people have stronger opinions on that matter than you would think. Especially if you take the time to stop them and make them take the time to think about it. Some common themes and trends emerge.
When asked Ginny Graff initially commented, "I'm pretty neutral on garage doors. Pretty neutral." But when met with a few more moments of silence, she continued.
"I mean, I guess they're good? I, uh. Well. I don't like that loud noise they make when they open with the garage door opener. But I guess I'm glad I don't have to open them by hand, either. That would suck."
When asked, Ally Rabden paused, and gave a strange look. Then she commented about her experience with accidentally breaking her parent's door as a child.
"Now I'm sort of embarrassed by them. I was playing basketball and I sort of smashed into my parents old rickety door and it just caved in." She is not a large person, barely over five feet tall, petite. The fact that she was able to break the door astounds me, and I say so. She laughs.
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it, either. Sprained my wrist and everything. It's a great story." She pauses. "Well actually it's a boring story. Sorry, I guess." She shrugs.
When I questioned a young brunette man named Dallas Trout, (what a name!) he got pretty angry.
"I hate them! It was so traumatic. Once, a garage door squished my cat. The laser beam things were broken, and the sensors didn't work to halt the descent of the door." He shuddered. "It was super gross. I was terrified of my door for years, as a kid."
Garage doors inspire interesting feelings in people. We will continue to interview people and find out what the general popular consensus is in the streets.
