Security!

I don't know about your house, but ours was never locked. I never once saw a door key in all the time we lived in Woodsdale. I guess with so many kids coming and going at all hours, my parents figured "what the heck, why lock it". Since I had never heard of a burglary or break-in in the whole neighborhood, this made sense to me.
But as a result, we used to come downstairs in the morning and often find people sleeping on the couches. Luckily, they were people we knew...usually kids who had gotten into "the spirits' of fun, and were scared to go home. Or sometimes it was friends of one of my siblings from out of town who just needed a place to crash. Whatever the reason, people knew the door was never locked and they were welcome. My mother would always say, "Do your parents know you are here?" and she would naively believe whatever answer she got.
Usually someone in the family could identify the person in question so we just never worried about it. Now everytime I hear one of those public service annoucements about a "safe house" for children needing refuge...I get a mental picture of bodies on the couches. Wasn't it nice to grow up in a neighborhood that was so trusting and crime-free that you could leave doors unlocked?