SECRET SOCIETY

For a while last year Wolfy lived in the apartment across the hall from me. We mostly had an open door policy and would wander over for morning coffee or a snack on the way to the studio. I always reminded him “Don’t forget your keys” because it seemed like an accident waiting to happen. So inevitably one night on our way to meet friends for sushi on a boat moored in the Danube canal I forgot my keys. I cursed myself, my little purse and high heals. It was too late to get extra keys from the landlord.

A few days later we were scavenging the flea market and Wolfy says, “You should get this!” In his hand was a chocker necklace with a single key dangling. I did get it. Stuck it around my neck there and then with a plan to rotate my key for the original. The key that came on the chocker I never really looked at, neither of us had. It was more like we bought the idea of the key necklace than the necklace itself.

But then we looked at it. What was this strange key? Was this the key to NYC city?  'Greetings from Mayor Robert F. Wagner" are etched into the key along with the New York City crest and Yale. Robert F. Wagner Jr. was mayor of NYC from 1954 – 1965. A little research showed that Mayor Wagner had been a member of the Scroll & Key society at Yale University. Scroll & Key was a splinter group of Skull & Bones and is the second oldest secret society at the University. He was also a Mason.

Had Robert F. Wagner Jr. sent out these keys to his cronies from the Scroll & Key society upon entering office? Does it actually unlock a door? To where and for whom? And how did my key necklace end up at a flea market in Vienna? I never replaced my house key for the Mayor's key. I decided to stop locking myself out of my own house instead. (Knock on wood!)