Elevator

In 1963, I was working in the Technical Lab building at Patrick AFB, Florida. The building is a three-story, plus basement building. The front entrance comes in on the first floor and the rear entrance is at the basement level. I normally parked at the rear and entered through the basement. Our office was on the third floor.

Many times, we would select the “Up” button for the elevator and see the floor indicator showing the elevator coming down. It would stop on the first floor and return upward. We discovered that people were punching the “Down” button on the first floor to get the elevator to stop on the way down and then turning off the elevator power. This would clear all button requests and the elevator could return upward.

We learned that if we got on the elevator in the basement, we could cycle the power as we neared the first floor and the elevator would not stop. It would continue upward. This became a game each morning.

One morning, after waiting for several cycles, the elevator finally reached the basement. As we neared the first floor, I cycled the power switch and we continued to the third floor. I reached the office a few minutes after 8 o’clock, which meant we were late.

About fifteen minutes later, one of the typists walked up to my desk and called me by name. She was seven months pregnant and very upset. She had a purse in one hand and a newspaper in the other. She asked me if I had caused the elevator to bypass the first floor.

I tried to think of a wise comment, but could only nod my head. She began hitting me about the head and shoulders with the folded newspaper she had in her hand. She was ranting that she had waited for the elevator on the first floor and it had bypassed her three times. She was upset because she had given up on the elevator and walked up two flights of stairs.

I sat there, stunned, and did not know what to do. I could not hit her back. I could only block some of the blows with my arms. She turned and stormed out.

Later in the day, I stopped in her office and apologized for bypassing the first floor. She then apologized for blaming me for bypassing the floor three times. Someone had told her that I had bypassed the first floor when they were on the elevator with me, but I only bypassed it once and it might not have been at the time when she was waiting.