My Dad’s Life in Keys

Going through my father’s things today, I got sidetracked.

Among manuals for his first car – a 1937 Chevy – and his father’s old Wallis tractor, a Studebaker pocket watch and bags of souvenir pins from dozens of cross- country jaunts were keys that unlocked a hundred compartments in his life.

There were skeleton keys (never used) to our farmhouse in the country; house keys after we moved to town; shop keys; ignition keys for trucks, combines and boats; keys to padlocks that secured his gas station on the Interstate, his TV repair shop in Susank, and who knows what else.

Today we lock up with our phones, start our cars with the push of a button, and buy online services to guard our wealth and our credit. Are we really that much more secure?