[extropy-chat] When Did (or Do) People Start Locking Doors?

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Fred C. Moulton
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] When Did (or Do) People Start Locking Doors?
> 
> 
> One of the items that was of value and more widely owned in some parts
> of the country were hunting rifles and shotguns... Fred

Fred I should clarify my earlier comment.  My family had guns in the house
before we had the color TV, but the guns were locked in their own rack
inside the house, and the rack was hard mounted to the wall.

Where I grew up, people might have begun locking in response to a mostly
fictitious character, the theoretical heroin addict.  The news media made up
this caricature of a wretched and dangerous being; desperate was he to steal
in order to support this hopeless addiction.  As much as I read about this
in the news, I never actually saw such a thing.  Perhaps they only existed
in the big city.  This stands to reason, for if a heroin addict were to show
up in the town where I grew up, some square would surely have slain the
pitiful wretch.  The local jury would acquit, agreeing that it was done for
mercy.

In retrospect, there were probably heroin addicts about, but we failed to
recognize them.  We expected filthy wrecks of men, lying unconscious in the
gutter with a belt around the arm.  The real heroin addicts were most likely
indistinguishable from everyone else, possibly a little ragged around the
edges, but so were we back in those days.  

We actually believed the news media back then.

spike