The combination lock

Life in the 70s


One of my fears in high school was forgetting the combination to the lock on my hallway locker.

I recall breaking out in a sweat as I took small steps the final eighty feet or so from my locker. I could see it just ahead. After three years as an underclassman, I was now a senior...it's now 1963 and I was  still battling in my mind, desperately trying to remember the combination.

I could hear the bell ring in the background. I had just minutes to reach the entrance to my next class.

Yes! Suddenly it came to me. Left, right...left. Or was it, right, left...right? Six digits away from a grand opening. A click. A push on the lever. Success!

Why my locker was normally empty was another story. Not one picture even of an image of a blonde, blue-eyed classmate staring back at me. To tell you the truth I was scared of women even back then.

I'm not sure I have ever got over that.

Fast forward to 2019...almost 2020, and in the far corner of my brain are 2,000 passwords...stored, ready to leap out and open up a window of opportunity, allowing me to get through another day, another week...another year.

I realize now that I have come a long way. I have a mind...a real mind. I have the ability to store numbers and exist comfortably in the 21st century.

It's a number's game and I'm still counting...still looking for the right combination to get me on down the road.