Keys

I was going to a university in Richmond, VA, in 1966 when we had a big snowfall. On one Tuesday it snowed about 13 inches. I don't know if "official" observations recorded this amount, but I was there and I shoveled snow for two or three hours to free my '55 Chevy from the snow, so I remember how deep it was. Then two days later, on a Thursday, it snowed again, about 12 inches, and my Chevy was buried again. So once more I had to spend two or three hours digging it out. You don't forget experiences like that. No, they're not major life changing events, but they're unusual enough, and pain-in-the-ass enough, that they stay in your conscious memory bank.

That same Chevy has another small story. One night I drove home and parked in front of my house. I got out and shut the door of the Chevy. Only then did I realize that I had just locked my car key inside my car. I had no spare key. So I went inside the house and told my dad what I had just done. He pulled his Buick key out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Try this key," he told me. Chevy and Buick were both made by General Motors, so he had the idea his key might fit the lock on the Chevy. 

And it did. I unlocked the Chevy and retrieved my key and all was good again.

A week or two later I was at my college campus in Richmond when I overheard someone complaining that he had locked his key inside his car. "What kind of car is it?" I asked. He told me. I don't recall the particular make of car, but it was a GM brand. "Take me to your car," I told him.

We walked a couple blocks and he stopped beside his car. I took out my Chevy key and inserted it into his door lock and turned it. The lock popped up and the vehicle was unlocked. All was good again.

I guess that trick with the key is probably in the past. But you never know, so if the situation is dire, you might try it. What do you have to lose?