Keys

Things change and I'm glad. In 1929, at 13, I had a "job" as a carhop at a drug store in Kansas City. I was paid nothing, just worked for tips. But one Sunday, when taken on a trip by the family, I didn't show up on time, I was fired. Anyway, now a baseball player whose salary is somewhat more than a carhop's, doesn't show up for work. His wife had the keys to the car. And the boss says, "It could happen to anyone." Maybe he was waiting for a streetcar? There will be one along when the RTD reaches Agoura.

Irwindale Speedway's Saturday night NASCAR races put the "South" in Southland as thousands of speed junkies gather to watch automotive hysteria on the half-mile oval. It's the Demolition Derby, though, that gets them up and stomping their feet. Four times this season, full-contact gladiators in their steel junkers will bash it up to see who will be the last man rolling. DD inverts the rules of the road, replacing the pursuit of safety with demented destruction. Fans call it fun.

Regarding "Still No Room for Grateful Dead Even in Relaxed-Fit 'Woodstock,' " by Judy Brennan (Film Clips, June 26): The Woodstock festival--the original and the repeats--are news and in the headlines, and to say the least I was disappointed in the article. For starters, of all the things Brennan and I spoke about as being important about "Woodstock" and what it relates to, approximately 119th--if it was even on the list--was the fact that the 40 minutes added to the film did not include the Dead.

To those who had the nerve to steal my car, I am hoping that someone will read this to them and then proceed to beat them: You cannot possibly conceive of all you have done in raping my 13-year-old hunk of steel. I worked during school for four years to save up to buy my car on my own--no help from my parents aside from encouragement. I continued to work for five years thereafter to keep my good old workhorse healthy and strong. In exchange, it provided me with an independence I could not have had as long as I was asking Mom for her keys.

Four intruders forced their way into the home of 75-year-old Dorothy Cunningham and 61-year-old Marty Killinger late one night, struggling with the women and demanding their car keys. They didn't realize they were dealing with the "pistol-packing grandmas." "I was raised in the Tetons, and whenever I wasn't herding sheep or cattle or working in the fields, I'd take a .22 rifle and target shoot," Cunningham said. "I'm not afraid of guns, and I know how to use them."

West Hollywood has the key to the parking space of the future. Offering a glimpse of what parking may be like in a cashless 21st Century, the trendy city has installed high-tech parking meters where a key can be used in lieu of a quarter. The Westside already has talking parking meters. And Los Angeles is planning to provide a pocket-sized personal parking meter to delivery trucks.

Myra Taylor touches the plastic box fastened to her wheelchair. "How are you?" she asks. "I feel happy today." In the wheelchair next to her, Michael Darlack leans over his box and announces, "I hate to wait." The messages are different, but the electronically synthesized voice that says them is not. It is, in fact, produced by the SonomaVoice, a portable box that talks in sentences at the touch of a button.

A Los Angeles police officer who allegedly stole a $2,500 gold necklace from a North Hollywood jewelry store, then was arrested when his car wouldn't start is facing a charge of grand theft, authorities said. John D. Leach, 30, a three-year veteran patrol officer in the department's Southwest Division, resigned shortly after the March 5 incident at Talbert Jewelry in the 6500 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Police Cmdr. William Booth said.

Regarding the "UCSD Co-Op Dispute" (March 10), we predict with the utmost confidence that the UC San Diego administration will have its way over the control of keys to the "student-owned" facilities. There is widespread knowledge of this issue within the student body, but your reporter has missed the most salient facts. To provide for public safety, the administration needs only to be issued keys. But their aim is to be the key masters, with total knowledge of and control over all key holders.