Earlier today, I retold a childhood tale to a friend about getting trapped in our basement. Here’s what happened. I was around 11 or 12. When I got home, I realized I didn’t have my keys on me. Though I can’t remember what time of year it was, or the weather, somehow I decided breaking into the basement was my best option. Our house had a door near the rear entrance to the basement. Sometimes it was open, or so my tween-aged brain reasoned.
Anyway, I broke into the basement through a window only to discover the basement door firmly latched. Trapped. Somehow I found some paper and a pencil. I began writing notes containing messages such as “Help,” “I’m in the basement,” and “Let me out.” I slipped the notes under the basement door. When my father came home he found the rear entry hallway littered with my help notes. That weekend he fixed all the basement windows so they actually latched properly.
After telling the story, I had a moment of reflection on how different things would be if that happened to my tween-aged self in today’s world. First of all, I wouldn’t have house keys anymore. For the last 5 years we’ve used a keypad to enter the house. At the tender young age of 11 or 12, I might also have my own phone. I could have used this to message my parents or a friend. My parents would have been able to open the door remotely, the same way I can from my phone app. I may have also been able to do google searches about different ways to break into a house when you forget your keys. It’s also highly unlikely there would have been paper and pencils readily available in the basement as so many things are now electronic and digital.
Needless to say, the story would have ended up completely different. Maybe it wouldn’t even be that funny retelling it decades later. Part of what made it funny was remembering how easy and simple everything seemed. Note writing, house keys, rotary dial phones with cords, or cordless phones with short battery life and range. So many things that used to happen to us wouldn’t even be an afterthought in today’s world because of technology’s impacts.
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