Adventures happened to us whether we were looking for them or not. We loved our adventures and always marveled at how they came about and how they lead from one to another.
One summer, my mother and I went to the town of Pátzcuaro, Mexico so she could paint there. Pátzcuaro is a famous town with the most churches of any town in Mexico. There are 2 or 3 churches on every street. Some are large and some are tiny. There are special dishes like atole and many regional traditions. The streets and balconies have flowers everywhere. There is also a beautiful lake: Lake Pátzcuaro. The fishermen there catch a special tiny fish which is a delicacy throughout Mexico. They use special "butterfly" nets to catch these fish and there are many famous paintings of the lake and fishermen. We rented a dorm room at the UNESCO Campus Center which was on summer holiday and just a short walk from the town.
The room had twin beds and was neat and clean. There was a shared bathroom with the dorm room next to it with inside locks on the doors for privacy. We had several neighbors who were spending their summers studying there. Everyone was very friendly and we soon had a group of folks that we could hang out with in the evenings when Mom had finished painting for the day and they had finished their studies for the day too.
The campus was large and surrounded by high fences. There was a main gate that opened to the outside and remained open during the day. At about 9 pm the gate was locked and it was a challenge to get back to the dorms before the gatekeeper locked the doors! It was sort of a contest: who could squeak in the latest. If you got locked out the only way was to climb over the very tall fence and many of the students regularly had to climb the fence and had it down to a science.
On our first night there as we were settling into the room, Mom decided to check out the door locks in the bathroom. So, she went in locked both doors – all was very satisfactory. When she left, the room she wanted to know how the locked worked from the outside: Would the handle turn? Could it be opened anyway? So, she locked both doors as she exited and closed them. She turned the handle from the room side and sure enough: it was locked. Triumph!
Triumph soon turned to horror when she realized she had locked us out of the bathroom! It was already evening and the staff had gone home for the day. There was no one who could unlock the door for us. Things suddenly looked very grim as there were no open restrooms anywhere nearby. Just then some of our new neighbors came back from their day of study and saw us standing outside the room looking rather frazzled. Explanations were given and we were told that it wasn't uncommon for that to happen but as it was summer and the staff was on holiday it might be several days before a staff person could come. Devastation!
The men however, stepped up and valiantly agreed to help us open the door. It was all rather simple they said; at the top of the door was an open transom and it was a matter of being boosted up there and crawling through just enough to reach the doorknob to turn it. A circus then developed. They each tried to reach the knob but could not. After several failed attempts, the only path was to boost me up to the transom, hold my feet as I slid over the top of the door to turn the doorknob from the other side. As I was only about 11 or 12 years old at the time, I was a lot easier to boost than the other fellows. So up I went and over the door! I could just barely reach the knob but Presto! It opened! Triumph Returned!
We all celebrated our good luck and the men said goodby and headed to their rooms for the evening. Mom was very relieved and said she never would Do THAT Again! Then she closed the door to the bathroom and “click” it locked. She had forgotten to unlock the door before she closed it and we were locked out again! HORRORS!
We ran next door to our neighbor and our tale of woe was repeated. He looked rather puzzled at my Mom, but he again boosted me over the door and I was able to open it. This time my Mom with great flourish UNLOCKED it and it remained unlocked for the duration of our stay.
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