KEYS

The other day I realized that not one of us in this house has a key to the front or back door. This came to light after I witnessed my son start to climb into the kitchen window. "Oh, hey Mom," he said through the window when he saw me sitting in the living room, "I didn't know you were home." "What are you doing?" I inquired. He answered, "What I do every day. I don't have a key to the door," as if I had asked a stupid question.

I had no idea how this came to be. There must be at least 50 keys hanging from various key rings on the rack by the back door. Steve's key ring probably holds 30 more. Surely, I thought, someone in the world was in possession of a key to at least one of our doors. I decided then that Steve and I would solve this problem on Saturday. Today is Saturday, and as Seth left for work this morning he asked, "You're going to get keys today?" "Yes," I told him, "We are getting keys!" "That would be good," he noted.

I had no idea my kids were so unassuming and accommodating.

I took all the keys off the rack and had Steve try to find ones that fit the front and back doors. He managed to identify one, and that was to the front door knob. However, he could not find one to the deadbolt on the front door. As he went through them he threw away a few. I was reminded of the ashtray full of keys we inherited when we bought our lake house. They were in a drawer, and we never did find locks to match those keys.The previous owners, Ed and Peggy, probably had no idea what the keys went to, either. Like most of us, they probably just kept them, because throwing away a key is a scary thing. What if you encounter a locked door and can't find a key? We tell ourselves that maybe one of the 50 keys in the drawer will fit!

As if.

Steve ended up taking the lock from the back door out and to the locksmith. We had six copies of keys made, and he installed a new deadbolt lock on the front door (it came with two keys). I have handed out keys to family members, and hopefully no one will need to crawl through a window in the future. There are still a bunch of keys on the rack, but I choose to believe they are vital to our lives. Mission accomplished!

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