Where are my keys?

You've seen the various memes that show an angry, blonde-haired woman, yelling and pointing, and the cat making a snappy comeback. One I saw today shows the woman saying, "Aren't you going to help me? My keys are locked in the car." And the cat responding, "Karen, you drive a convertible."

This reminds me of something that happened in the parking lot outside a convenience store on a Navy base. Understand, this predates key fobs by at least a decade.

I had just come out of the store when I saw Ron, a friend. Ron and I were in the same department but worked different shifts. Anyway, he pulled up and talked for a while. During our chat, I saw this woman with blonde hair come out of the store, carrying a grocery sack. When she went past, I forgot about her.

Several minutes later, Ron said, "I wonder how long it'll take her to find her keys."

I turned around. The woman had unlocked her car and shoved the bag onto the back seat. She was looking high and low, checking her purse, checking the seats.

The keys were hanging from the driver's door.

And that reminds me of Kathy, another blonde. A friend. In fact, I had a crush on her and wanted to date her but she was seeing another guy.

Kathy worked in the air traffic control tower. I don't remember if she was a controller or had some support assignment. Whatever the case, I was in the Security Department (military police). When making my rounds at night, I would often stop by the tower to make sure they were okay.

One night, my friend Kathy was on duty. In fact, I got there just before shift change. Whoever was on duty in that office was responsible for the keys. During shift change, the outgoing person handed the keys over to the relief. And while some staff left the keys in their storage area, Kathy had a habit of clipping the key ring to one of her belt loops. On this night, she hadn't. The relief would not sign the log without the keys, so Kathy spent the next 5-10 minutes looking. The one place she hadn't checked was the rack.

A wall-mounted rack just inside the entrance door held the office keys and some others.

To my knowledge, Kathy was the only one who kept the keys with her during the entire shift. But on that night, she never took them off the rack.

On the lighter said, she did kiss me once, so there's that. I was at one of the casinos for New Year's Eve. I was off somewhere playing video poker. When midnight and "Happy New Year" were announced, all I remember was standing in the aisle, watching the announcer and confetti drop. I saw Kathy, walking straight toward me. She just smiled, grabbed my face, said, "Happy New Year," and planted one.

I never went on a date with her, but I do have that memory.