Ever since I can remember, I have had a fear of getting on an elevator. Back in the ’50s, when I had a dentist appointment in the office above the bank on Sandusky and Winter, I had to ride an elevator to get there. I’m not sure which floor it was on, but just one floor up was too much.
This would have been at a time when there was always an operator running the elevator. That was not as scary as when I had to get on one by myself.
When I first began work at the courthouse, an elevator had just been added because a person in a wheelchair had recently been elected to office. I never rode it because I believed in walking for exercise in those days. I used that as my excuse anyway.
There was a time much later when I was working at OWU when I was told that I had to go to Columbus and meet in an attorney’s office that was on something like the 16th floor. (It was around that high of number anyway.) I know I dreaded it from the day I found out about it until the day we had to go. I didn’t have to go alone, there were two women from the office that went as well, and they got me through that scary experience.
Now for my most recent experience with an elevator. This past Friday we set out for Delaware with the main reason of going to The Gazette and dropping by to meet the editor. I have been sending articles to the Gazette for six or seven years now, but I had never met this editor.
I thought I knew exactly where to go because of seeing a sign in the PNC Bank stating to get on the elevator and go to the second floor. So, as soon as we walked in the east door of PNC and saw an elevator, we pushed the button to get up to the second floor. I dreaded getting on, but with my husband was there to open the door and talk me through it, so I got on with him.
It was very small, which is not what I hoped for. As soon as the elevator stopped and waiting the time until the door opened, I finally stepped out as soon as possible. But we weren’t where we should have been. We were in an empty area of the second floor of the bank and really didn’t know where we were. We walked the hall and looked in all the rooms, but no offices had anyone in them except one way in the back. We asked about the Gazette, and he told us that they had moved from that area a long time ago.
Next was to find stairs so as to be able to walk back down to the first floor and after what seemed like a lot of looking, we did. And within minutes, we were outside again and heading home.
I don’t know how I became so afraid of elevators. I think It has a lot to do with something called claustrophobia. After all, I have never enjoyed getting on an airplane. Or, maybe it has something to do with that first ride in an elevator when I was on my way to my dentist appointment. Who knows?
Editor’s note: The Delaware Gazette office is located in Suite 203 on the second floor of the PNC Bank building at 40 N. Sandusky St. in downtown Delaware.
Kay E. Conklin is a retired Delaware County recorder who served four terms. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in sociology and anthropology.
