Remember When: We had doilies and big sliding doors

My father’s family had a house with a feature I always found fascinating.

It was a set of heavy oaken doors, sliding in a track, that separated the dining and lounging area from the living room.

The doors didn’t have a lock, but if you were in the dining room staring at them, the suggestion of “don’t go into this room” was inescapable.

That aura of the forbidden, I learned years later, was planned. Living rooms in the 1800s and early 1900s (and this was a 1900s home) were like great halls where royal audiences were held. They weren’t for everyday use.

No, their purpose was entertaining visitors of some sort of importance. Even seldom-seen relatives from out of town might not qualify to enter.

The furniture, dark and foreboding, had white doilies on the arms and at head level on the ba