[M.M.X.I.V. 67] Elevators

“Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down? Oh no! Let’s go! Let’s go crazy!”

Apologies to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, but when I saw the Daily Post prompt, I just had to use that line, and also write about the elevators. They’ve been a source of childish impulse for me… and I just wanted to write some things about the significance that elevators have played for me, especially involving the Embassy Suites.

When I was young, it was always fun to go on vacation. I lived in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and our vacation spots were such “exotic” places as Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, and Milwaukee. One summer weekend, we went to Adventureland on the east side of Des Moines, and stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown on the river, catty-corner from the Channel 8 studio (which I think has moved since then).

In Embassy Suites hotels, there are lush atria with plenty of tables, lights, and greenery, with skylight coming in from above. From the atrium, you can see balconies of all of the floors. (Thankfully, each floor has a guard rail to prevent the accidental walking off into the atrium from above.) In this particular Suites, there were four elevators, one on each corner of the atrium.

These elevators are glass elevators, which means that you can see the atrium as you ascend. As a seven or eight-year old Aspie, this was fascinating to me, and led me to the exhilarating conclusion that I would go up and down the elevator from top to bottom repeatedly. Mom and Dad allowed this a few times, and that became one of my favorite things about the hotel. The spacious guest rooms and complimentary, expansive breakfast didn’t hurt either!

My next time in an Embassy Suites was in 1998, for my first family vacation to a non-family destination! It was for Dad’s AAFP (American Academy of Family Physicians) conference in Chicago. From the entrance, there was a grand staircase that led up to the atrium, which again had the view of the sky, the red flowery carpet, the tables, the plants, and the glass elevators. This time, the elevators were all in one spot.

But, another fascinating thing about me to the elevators: Sometimes they would “ding” once upon arrival at a floor, sometimes the “ding” would resound twice. Always looking for patterns, I was not able to deduce it at the time, but many years later when I moved to Chicago, I figured it out. One “ding” corresponded to one flash of the white top circle or up arrow. Two “dings” corresponded to two flashes of the red bottom circle or down arrow.

Although I have some other elevator stories, they’re not really related to impulse, so I’ll save those for another day.

===========================

Today is the sixty-seventh day of M.M.X.I.V. That makes nine weeks and four days.

This post was a response to yesterday’s Daily Post prompt:

Sometimes, we act on impulse: it could be something as small as ordering that special dessert on the menu, maybe asking out that cute boy or girl, or as large quitting your job and selling everything you own to become a shepherd in New Zealand. What’s the most crazy, outrageously impulsive thing you’ve ever done? If you’ve never succumbed to temptation, dream a little. If you gave yourself permission to go a little crazy, what would you do?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us IMPULSE.

I must admit that this is not the most outrageous thing that I have ever done, but the title of the post stood out more than the superlatives in the prompt.

Here are some other responses to this post.

8 thoughts on “[M.M.X.I.V. 67] Elevators”

The childish part of us is the one that attracts the adults most. I can picture you going up and down the elevator, you felt awesome and your parents loved watching you having one.

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ranu802
8 March, 2014 at 09:03
- Indeed. We all have a childish impulse, regardless of how old we are. As an Aspie, I think that I have even more of those, for better or for worse.
  
  Thanks for reading!
  
  LikeLike
  
  
  Noah Weiss
  8 March, 2014 at 15:28
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[M.M.X.I.V. 67] Elevators

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