In The Club

5 minutes into our (slightly unnerving) adventure and Nate points out that we are not in a somewhat exclusive club. At the time, I thought it was sweet that Nate was staying so positive...but now, I realize, he was right! Not only are we in the "Stuck in an elevator club", but Nate, Margy, Oliver, Todd, Jason and I are in the "Stuck in an Elevator and Climb Out to Freedom Club". Talk about exclusive.

A few Sundays ago, we visited Nate, Ashley and Leo for some Nintendo and a tender goodbye. Nate generously offers to drive us back to 111th. Upon entering the elevator, the door closes behind me, two seconds of regular ride and bang, we're dropping. I don't know how I was the only one screaming! It's true we only dropped for 5 seconds but it was long enough to decide I was plummeting to my death.
First rational decision, use the emergency call box. No go. The woman who answered couldn't seem to hear us over a pre-recorded message the elevator was playing. And she may not have heard us but we heard her getting pretty frustrated.
Nate made the major decisions. I don't want to speak for the rest of the group, especially not the men, but I know I was shaken up and basically waiting to be rescued. Guess there's a little damsel-in-distress in me.

(Oliver looks too good to be stuck in an elevator. Todd looks very happy. Margy had a good "stuck in an elevator" face.)
Next option...call Paul, the super. I guess he lives next door because he showed up quick. We
heard him at the bottom of the shaft, and called down to him what floor we're on. A few minutes more and we hear Paul fiddling with the doors...the creak of the outer doors being pried open and then his fingers working through to pull open the inner door.

Beaming with pride and delight, Paul finally got the doors open. Then holding up a little tool (check the picture), said something like, "I'm not supposed to have this but I got it from the manufactured downtown." (If anyone remembers more exactly what he said, let me know). This angle is a bit deceiving. Paul is crouching down and we now have to climb through a three foot gap. My concern for how I was going to maneuver out with my weak upper body must have shown on my face, but before any words were exchanged from the trapped crew, Nate immediately got on all fours like a stool (what a guy!). We all stepped up and wiggled out to the safe hallway.

I believe Nate's calm stems from a combination of the following factors....
a. He possibly felt a little responsible that we were stuck in "his" elevator. We didn't feel this way but the elevator was more his, than ours.
b. He's in the national guard/army and is trained to handle emergencies.
c. He was stuck in an elevator before, on his mission in Russia. Talk about exclusive, he's in the club twice.
d. He's a calm, rational guy.











(Nate climbing to safety)
Afterthoughts...
1. I'm mostly sure Paul told us he locked the elevator or something that made us feel safe climbing through this little gap. If something had moved...well, I'm not even getting into that.
2. It felt like an hour but we clocked in at about 20 minutes from drop to out.
3. If someone had taken guesses on how far we dropped, I would have gone with 10 feet....realistically it was probably only 2-3.
4. This is another example of life is much easier with cellular phones.
5. Although I was nervous and teary at first. This does make a good story.