The messages of front doors

I’ve been out helping to deliver leaflets this weekend, as the local elections are coming up, and been really surprised at the proportion of homes near me that send stern messages to anyone approaching.

Many are open from the pavement and I could wheel the baby buggy up to the door, but others stack up the barriers and disincentives.

I reckon around 50 per cent of front doors near me carry a message about not wanting cold callers, pizza leaflets or free newspapers, or insisting on seeing verifiable identification if I were to be so impertinent as to knock or ring.

At one house the letter box was deliberately secured shut, for fear of bombs, presumably; so anything, including post (and bombs, conceivably) had to be left in a box at the doorstep.

Of course there are also those that courteously, but not quite invitingly, advise you that you are subject to 24 hour CCTV recording. Most memorably, one with a silent dog behind the letter-flap who snapped the leaflet from my grasp and narrowly left me my fingers.

And all the time one is conscious that while some people regard political campaign material as a form of dirty litter, others will complain if they have not received theirs.

It’s dispiriting to face the messages of many fortress mentalities, but maybe I should do this more often, to improve my reading of neighbourhoods.

Comments

[Pauline Sargent]

Hey Kevin

I wrote a similar post last year during our election time. http://www.drimnaghisgood.com/2011/01/31/ireland-election-leaflets-ge11-to-bin-or-not-to-bin/

As hearing people giving out about the leaflets made me think about how or if people wanted to be informed about local news and politics.

And I still don't have an answer. Nearly every door in Drimnagh has a No Junk sign.

Pauline

[Kevin Harris]

Thanks for the link Pauline, nice one - your comment is well made, that "these No JUNK Mail signs are another way of a community saying it doesn’t care, that it is not open to thoughts, ideas or local inforamtion. That it doesn’t want to help it’s fellow neighbours with their endeavours be they political, business or community wise."
What has struck me is that 20 years ago, what I tended to see when approaching front doors was often a declaration of religiosity - typically a christian or jewish symbol. Very few of these now. There's an earnest determination to protect privacy, a sense of defensiveness.

[Melissa Burt]

Well, I have been into this situation as when my father for a position in an office. My neighbors were mad when they did not receive a single paper for my dad. It was just funny to reminisce now because the neighbors were that supportive of my father. Fortunately, he won the position and thanks to my neighbors!

[Della Edmonds]

Doors are doors. Do you really have to put some meaning into it? jeez.