Hi everyone! I’m an art student working on a project about keys, and l’d love to hear personal stories behind them🥺 Would anyone be willing to share a key that means something to them, along with the story behind it? ❗️Please avoid posting photo of your actual keys, just in case someone might misuse them.
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It could be a house key connected to a special memory, something that happened in a particular place, or even a small part of your everyday life.
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It doesn’t have to be a house key, either. Maybe it belongs to a drawer, or something else entirely. Perhaps there’s a reason you’ve kept it for years, or a memory attached to it that you’ve never really thought about sharing.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to anyone who feels like sharing☺️
About a decade ago I had a roommate who worked at a movie theater. They called me one evening because they’d broken the key off in the lock trying to close up for the night. I went down to hang out with them while they found a 24hr emergency locksmith. I still have the bow of the broken key that says DO NOT DUPLICATE.
Ohh a key head that says DO NOT DUPLICATE! That’s really a collector’s item😼It probably never imagined it would retire from the cinema so early in life and end up spending its golden years just lying around everydayyy ;3 I wish my life had more absurd, exciting, and entertaining little adventures like this! Also, I wish I had a friend who worked at a cinema(Although I have no idea if they’d get access to more free movie tickets :3
My private key is 4
Hey just FYI that private key has been leaked. All the people talking about it are saying that it’s bad to have any key below 255, so you should move to 256 like I did.
Does private key mean a number that’s special to you? If so, my private key is 94☺️ I’ve always felt like there’s a 94 somewhere in the world that belongs to me, entirely and forever
Nah. This is a reference to a piece of pretty embarassing IT security news this week. https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/the-internet-goes-on-high-alert-after-discovery-of-8-compromised-tls-certs/
94 is marginally better than 4 (I’m actively avoiding to say ‘a bit better’ here). But you still shouldn’t tell anyone your private key.
Thank you for explaining the whole thing and even linking the article!❤️ Now I finally understand the full story, that’s actually wild😭 But seriously, how was that even allowed x/
(Indian certification authority eMudhra’s private keys turned out to not really be 384-bit, and as basic as “4” (they didn’t find a 94 tho!). It was huge & memey news a few days ago, but then 4 php vulnerabilities surfaced so it could be that “4”.)
OHHH, I get it now! That’s such a witty and clever answer, I love it! ☝️🤓I’m actually a hacker myself, I should’ve known about this sooner.
**I just read the article, and that could actually be really dangerous for people. Sometimes I joke around a bit too much, so I hope my earlier comment didn’t come across the wrong way :p :)
Just wanna remind people about being careful posting pictures of their keys, it’s possible to reverse engineer the cut.
I don’t wanna imply that op had bad intentions, I’ve had plenty of keys that have held meaning to me, they are all excellent keepsakes for remembering places and things you were familiar enough with to have some sort of connection to
Omg, thank you so much for the reminder!! I honestly hadn’t thought that through carefully enough🥺I’ve now added a note to the post asking people not to share photos of their actual keys. If anyone still posts one, I’ll reply but also delete their comment to keep them safe x I really appreciate you looking out for everyone, this helps me a lot❤️ And yes, keys make wonderful keepsakes. They may look similar, but each one is unique and holds its own memories. Being a key collector is such a lovely thing :D
Eh it’s all good, so long as they’re old keys that don’t go to any particular lock anymore it’s not as big a deal, moreso a reminder so people don’t go making security risks for themselves unknowingly
Yes! Better safe than sorry☺️☺️
I actually have a collection of keys Ive found on the street while walking around. I have over 300 keys so far. They’re all on a bunch of varying sized key rings all connected together. It’s fascinating to see the different kinds and wonder why the person lost them. Some of them I can remember picking up a lot of them I don’t though.
That’s so cool!! If I found a key, I’d be unable to stop wondering what happened to someone in that area that left their key lying there all alone🤧 Of the keys you remember finding, was there one that turned up somewhere particularly strange or unusual? Do you have any favourites :DDD I collect keys too, but I just buy old ones that I like the design or purpose of. Your way of collecting them sounds way more fun😸
The vast majority I’ve found just lying by the curb, usually in downtown areas. I’ve also found few during a few different jobs.
One that I can remember I found on top of a branch of a tree by the sidewalk. It was an unusually long key that I noticed when I stumbled into the tree on my way home drunk from a college party.
I used to worry a lot about them and the people looking for them, but I’ve tried to report them in the past but the owner never turned up. People worry about losing keys, but the reality is theres way too many locks to ever know what it goes to.
A key on the tree branch is so mysterious. It would make me wonder if I’d stumbled across some kind of SCP creature, or if I was just way more drunk than I thought I was🤧 Maybe Mr. Crow had found himself a shiny new piece of home decor so it was there :3 just like a star on the top of the Christmas treeee And yeah, that’s so true. When I was little, my family told me they’d lost a key, I’d get so anxious about some stranger suddenly breaking into our home. But then again, who really knows which lock a lost key belongs to :)
My assumption was that some other drunk person found it on the ground and thought it would be easier for the owner to find if they came back because the branch was a bit below eye level. I definitely thought it was an odd place to find a key, but I wasn’t too worried. At that point I had found maybe 20 keys that year. Drunk college kids lose them a lot.
That makes a lot of sense! Hanging it somewhere so visible is actually a pretty good idea. I guess I’ll have to keep an eye on my keys too, even though I don’t drink much. If I ever lose my keys, I’ll come ask you if you’ve found them ;3
Indeed! I’ve had a key to a lock I’ve never seen that a close friend gave me in high school that has the word ‘LIFE’ beautifully engraved on it that I keep with me at all times. I like to imagine it’s a bit of a lucky charm.
Wow if I ever come across you in future, I’ll guess you have a lucky key :3 that’ll be our secret code. Your friend really picked such a lovely and unique gift. Maybe this key opens the door to a beautiful life🌟
I had to turn in the key to my first apartment. But i still have the envelope it came in
Keeping the envelope too is such a romantic thing to do! The envelope gathers traces of time, just like how your first steps into that apartment happened so long ago. Golden memories💛
You said it better than I could have. I think your project is going to be evocative 💟
Thank you!!🥺You’re the one who inspired me. We both have an eye for beauty and a romantic soul💕
The one that tastes better than bread
Is it that meme about whether the key or the bread is more attractive in prison🤤I choose kid…(a combination of key and bread
A car key of a car I had for 15 years.
(there isn’t much more of worth to the story :/)That’s so cute! I’m the kind of person who gets attached to my belongings, if something’s been with me for 15 years, it’s probably gonna be with me for another 100 :3 Your car key must feel so loved and proud🚗
Yes, something like that, I do get kinda attached to objects in my life … and then get sad & (mentally) “thank” them when I have to say goodbye.
I feel like there’s a romantic and sentimental side to your personality, and that’s something really precious☺️ It is sad, of course, but I’m sure those objects were lucky to have shared a happy chapter of life with you :> We spend our lives constantly meeting and saying goodbye, but every encounter means something and leaves us with memories to cherish🩷
I bought a skeleton key from the hardware store for a house that was about a hundred years old, to test if the locks in my house worked. It did, and for the next couple of months, I’d prank people by locking the door to their room, or the bathroom. Never locking them in, just out, and then when they wandered off frustrated, I’d open it back up.
I’ve always pranked people, but them not knowing there was a key to their own bedroom is always gonna be one of the better pranks I did.
Dunno if that’ll quite fit your goal, but I still have that skeleton key, kept it even when a tooth broke off and it stopped working.
This is genuinely hilarious, you became the true ruler of the house >:3 I kind of wish someone would prank me like that just so I could experience the frustration myself, especially when I need to use the toilet hahaha. But seriously, a skeleton key is so cool!? Does that mean I could use it to unlock everyone’s front door :3333
And yes, I really love this adorable story. I hope that key stays by your side for a long, long time. If I were you, I’d be showing it off to all my close friends😼
This is the key in question, before it lost a notch, and while it does work on most locks from the time, just looking at it tells you how well it’d work on a modern lock, and our front door had been modernized, unfortunately for my schemes.
Had a ton of fun with it.
Aww, even that scheme is no longer an option, I’m sure you have plenty of other ideas up your sleeve ;3 I’m the kind of person who afraid of causing anyone trouble, even the cute trouble🤧so I find your personality reallly interesting, you seem like such a different kind of person from me
but after receiving a kind reminder I realized that posting photos of key can potentially pose a security risk, would you be happy to take the photo down if possible <3 P.S. I’m so glad I got to see it!(before it became a secret)The long, slender shape is exactly the kind I’d love to collect!!!
It’s an issue for real keys, where someone can get a key cut to match a photo, but this is a skeleton key, it’s not keyed to anyone’s lock in particular and is freely available to purchase. Anyone with vintage locks that work with this key should just consider their door unlocked for security purposes, and either replace or supplement it with a modern lock.
So yeah if you want one you can get them at most hardware stores, it was like 6$, and came in a pack of two. (I lost one like a day after I got it, so I only ever really had the one).
Oh, I see! I finally understand skeleton keys now. You’ve turned the other key into a Dobby with a sock xD Maybe that’s a good thing. This reminds me of when my bf was renting a place in London and forgot his key, but somehow managed to open the door with a chopstick. Locks really are fascinating things.
First car key. Car was wrecked but I’ll always have its fob
Awww, as long as you see it, you’ll be reminded of your first car and all the adventures you had together in different places. Though maybe your second car key will start kicking up a fuss, demanding to be treated just as well as the eldest :3
I still have the keys to my first car. Car is long gone, passed down to each of my siblings and eventually donated to some local charity I think, gotta be at least 20 years ago. Somehow I ended up with a set of the original keys and they’ve managed to follow me around ever since. At this point I fully intend to keep them till I die, because why the hell not?
That’s such a great choice! I’d definitely do the same if I had a car of my own. That car was truly an old friend of your family, or maybe even a family member :> It accompanied so many people in your family, leaving everyone with happy memories of it. After I died maybe I want to be buried with my keys, along with all the other things I truly love. I’m a pretty possessive person when it comes to things I’m attached to, and I just wouldn’t be able to bear letting them go🫳🫳🫳
