The Apprentice: Car Keys of the 1960s

In the 1960's there weren't many obstacles in the way of a juvenile auto thief determined to go joyriding.

General Motors only had about 50 keys. That's right, if you had just one key, you could start 1 in 50 GM cars in any parking lot.

But trial and error was unnecessary. Plenty of kids had the whole collection.

Many people carried their car keys in their pocket or purse, mixed with coins. These loose keys often ended up on the pavement. A Sunday morning bike ride through the tavern district often yielded sparkling treasure.

Folks commonly left their keys in the car. Sure, a kid could take off on a joy ride, but experienced guys wanted to own that car. Presaging the modern technique of using the VIN and getting a key cut to steal a car, we took the key and copied it with a file on blanks sold in the hardware store.

The object was to have a fleet of cars, any one of which could be stolen at will. You'd snatch a car and cut a lap through town, waving at a couple other 13 year olds in their boosted rides, and return the car before the owner got off work.

No foul, no cops looking for me. Just cheap thrills.

After a couple years and maybe 300 joyriding experiments, me and another kid found an old car that was always parked in front of a church. Keys always in the ignition. We concluded the owner must be an old person who frequently volunteered or attended the church. We borrowed the car about 6 times, returning it to the same spot without incident.

There was always a risk when you brought back a stolen car, that another car would be parked where your boosted ride belonged. When that happened, there was no choice but to drop the ride somewhere else, tipping off the mark and probably generating a police report.

So one day we brought the car back to the church and found a 1962 Chevy Impala SS parked in our spot. As we slid by, two big rednecks started hollering, fired up that hot Impala, and gave chase.

Oops, the game had turned serious. I pushed the pedal down and asked for all that old sedan would do. A couple blocks down, I sideswiped a couple parked cars, jerked to a stop blocking the street so they had to stop, and my buddy and me lit out up the alley.

Kids nowdays don't have that kind of opportunity for good clean fun.

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