The Blonde and I live in a building with elevators. There are a number of them. During the course of the past few months, the residents have considered setting up a lottery where folks can put in some bucks on which one will shut down next. Someone said that we would have to set odds on each, especially since the freight elevator (which is used for residents too) takes a holiday more than any of the others. It was finally determined to forget it as the whole matter was becoming too complex. In addition, it was determined that the exercise moving to the next available elevator was good for people our age – unless it was one to the garage as that involves quite a bit of walking.
While elevators are nice things to have, they can be a pain in the toe or wherever. The Blonde in the House and I were at a conference in Denver some years ago, when she looked out the window of our hotel and saw a bunch of fire trucks down below. We were wondering what was going on when the fire alarm rang insistently. Naturally we couldn’t take an elevator so we had to walk down twelve floors to work our way to the sidewalk. Everybody watched and talked while the firefighters did their thing. Finally, we were told it was a false alarm and could return.
About an hour later we were sitting around our room when danged if the alarm didn’t go off again. We got ready to march down a second time, but unfortunately a friend of ours came out of his room in nothing but his undershorts when his room door slammed behind him. Since he had no key, he couldn’t get back in his room so he had to march down the twelve floors that way and stand on the sidewalk with the rest of us. This was Denver in late autumn by the way. Luckily. It did not take quite as long to determine that it was another false alarm. We all returned to our rooms with out any further alarms that night. Our friend heard about his escapade for the rest of the conference. I am certain that he remembered this conference for some time. However, it must be admitted that if it weren’t for elevators, we wouldn’t have been up on the twelfth floor. Poor downtown Denver would have seen loads of small motels of two stories or so taking up a bunch of expensive real estate without Mr. Otis’s handiwork.
Keeping that thought in mind can you imagine what New York City would look like without elevators. Just think that there would be no Empire State Building or any other of the classic skyscrapers. What with American ingenuity I suppose it is possible that someone might have built the Empire State Building anyhow. However, they would have to place ads in the newspaper listing office space at exceedingly low rates. Then some poor person who wanted to be in NYC would sigh and determined that he had found a place that he could afford. Then, he would find that he had to drag all his stuff up ninety-nine floors. Once up there, he would find that his clients really didn’t want to climb ninety-nine stories to get to his office. It would have been a real mess – even more so for the person on the one hundredth floor. You know, I have always wondered what is on the ninety-nineth floor of the Empire State Building. Probably something that is exotic!
However, the point is that elevators are good things even if they do break down once in a while. I assume that the ones in the Empire State Building are well maintained so life should be good there. I would hate to have our friend walk down ninety-nine floors in his undershorts.
Finally, just remember that just about everything has its ups and downs. (Didn’t think I was going to get that in did you!)
Villager Barry Evans is a columnist with Villages-News.com
