I remember when I was a kid, I had broken the shower door by throwing a doll into it. The door was an all glass sliding door and at that time, not a cheap thing to replace. I remember when my mother had to call around to every shop to try and find shower doors in New Jersey, only to find out that only a few places had them. When she did find one, it was like the heavens opened up for her.
To this day, I won’t forget the glass man coming into the bathroom and seeing the glass and looking at me and telling me, “You got a good arm, kid.” and laughing. It made me feel less in trouble about the whole thing. My mom tried as best she could to clean up the glass before he came, so all that was left was the crashed door. He carefully took it off the railing it was on and went outside with it, covering it with a drape so it wouldn’t cut anyone. He came back in with a new door and put that on the rail and slide it back and forth to ensure it worked.
I watched him from the hallway, carefully putting the door in place and watching it slide back and forth. When he saw me, he told me “Throw your doll at this door, let’s see if it’ll break.” I know I didn’t want to break it again so I shook my head no to him. My mom told me “It’s okay, we don’t want another broke door, so we need to make sure this one is real sturdy.” So I chucked the door at the door and closed my eyes knowing it would break. It didn’t. The repair guy told me “It’s a perfectly magic door. Won’t break again!” and I was young and confused. I later learned that my mom and the repair man decided that going with an acrylic door material would be better for the family than a glass door. It was more sturdy and meant less cleaning for her to do! It never broke again.
