Recently I inherited a lot of stuff from my parents, including their key to the city of Hattiesburg, Miss.
The story was that they were driving through the town of about 50,000 on their way to Florida, in a rush because it was a business thing involving not missing a ship. Suddenly, my dad heard sirens and saw a blaze of flashing lights. He was being pulled over by an enormous number of Southern cops.
He stopped, rolled down his window and was asked to step out of the car. Then, suddenly there were cameras flashing, and the mayor was handing him the key to the city for being the millionth person to pass through the city limits.
“I’m sure glad I’m really with my wife,” he quipped to a reporter. Then the mayor and the police all took my mom and dad to lunch.
I love this story, and I love the key to the city. (I keep it on a shelf next to my dad’s original key to the Chicago Playboy Club, but that’s another story.)
And I must confess, I always thought it would be cool to do something so amazing that the mayor of Newport Beach would give me a key to my own city.
Not long ago, I had the chance to chat with Mayor Mike Henn, and I asked him if Newport Beach issued keys. (If the answer was yes, I was going to start a campaign to get one for myself.)
Sadly, he said they do not.
This didn’t really surprise me. I attended a City Council meeting once where their were dignitaries from another country being welcomed and honored. I believe they received coffee mugs and other Newport Beach gift items. But not keys.
According to Wikipedia, a key to the city evokes “medieval walled cities whose gates were guarded during the day and locked at night, the key symbolises the freedom of the recipient to enter and leave the city at will as a trusted friend of city residents.”
Maybe by that definition, a resident would never qualify for his or her own key to his or her own city.
In any case, I think Newport Beach should support this custom. I know it won’t happen in these days of budget cuts and fiscal restraint. But I think it would be cool.
