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KEYPART

                                                          4/15/01

Watching the documentary about Levittown,        "Dreamtown",
a few of the old folks talk about the old        I think
days when some people they used to know 
were into going to "key parties".  

These were supposedly wife swapping 
parties, where everyone throws their keys 
into a jar and then draws at random.

I've heard about these things before, 
of course.  And I've wondered before: 
how *exactly* is this supposed to work? 

A bunch of couples go out to this 
party, they get a little drunk, toss 
their keys in the jar, they do the 
drawing... 

And then what?  Keys don't
typically have addresses
marked on them.  I doubt that
they did even back in the
fabulous fifties.  How do you
know whose key you've got?

Okay, so you take the key off
your ring, and attach a
*label* to it, and write down
the address.

We might wonder at this point
why you bother with the key.
Why not just write down the
info on a card, and draw           And why would anyone be out "wandering"?
cards?  One person (wifey or       Both couples are at the same party, right?
hubby?)  is going to be at	   So, you draw a name, and go home with 
home, while the other (hubbie	   whoever's name you draw. 
or wifey?)  is out wandering,	             				 
so just have one let the other	             
in.                                           It *could* be that the   
                                              point is to make sure    
                                              that your spouse         
But okay, so I'm being dull                   doesn't have their key   
witted and overlooking the                    on them, so they can't   
impressive symbolism of                       suddenly back out of     
tossing your *key* away, and                  the deal and barge in    
letting someone else fit it                   on some shennanigans     
into your *lock*... Whatever.                 and throw a jealous      
                                              fit.                     
                                                                       
Now off you go, with your                     Somehow I doubt that     
random key plus address tag,                  this is the concept.     
you find your
home-away-from-home...  and
then in the morning, what do
you do with the key?  How do
you give it back to whoever
you traded with?  Do you both
just leave it behind when you
go out, and expect wifey to
let you back in when you get
home?

Wouldn't this seem a little
ridiculous to you at this
point... like why did you
bother trading keys at all?
                                   
Okay, so there's deep
symbolism here.  But what
does it symbolize to go out
keyless into the morning?
                                             
I can imagine ways to get                    
this to work, but overall it         Maybe you'd have a special 
seems pretty silly.                  guest key made, with a tag 
                                     that has the address on it.
                                     So no one ever goes keyless
                                     then.                      
                                                                
                                     But once again, why not    
                                     just the tag?              
                                                                
                                                          
                                                          
    It couldn't be that "key     
    parties" are more "urban     
    legend" than real, could it? 




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