Don't Take Door Handles For Granted

April 2004:This story took place in about ten minutes, but trying to break out of a hot and smelly men’s restroom made it seem like forever.We were driving home the evening of the day we left from Cottonwood, Arizona and my mom wanted to stop in Jacumba, California to get an iced tea. We stopped at the road side gas station and I went in and bought mom an iced tea. After delivering it to her, I decided I should use the restroom. I walked in the men’s restroom and shut and latched the door. (It was a one person restroom.) As I was about to leave, I noticed that the door handle had been ripped off by a previous user. I figured it must not be that hard to break out of a restroom, until I noticed the giant bathroom door was metal! The restroom stunk, and was really hot, but I still tried to open the tightly shut door. I noticed the door would open toward me, so I shouldn’t try to shove it out the other way like the Marines do to break into houses. I took out my keys and tried to jiggle with the other side of the handle, but only bent the keys. I grabbed hold of the spring that makes sure the door doesn’t slam shut, and pulled, but that wouldn’t move the door either. I tried putting the door handle back on, but that only wasted time. Then I began to imagine if there was a fire in the building and I was in the restroom trying to break out! The only other thing I could think of was to try taking the hinges off the door. Luckily, the hinges were kind of loose, so I began trying to get the bolt off.Just then, my dad came. “Daniel?” he yelled from the outside of the restroom. I banged on the door and said, “Yeah, Dad, open the door (which I had managed to unlatch) and let me out of here!” This was the only time I really wished I had my video camera with me! All I can say is that before you ever close a door, make sure it has a handle still attached!Don’t ever take door handles for granted!