Sometimes...

Sometimes you just have to laugh... the leg home from Dallas to COMO was entertaining. It started in the Dallas terminal, when the young man at the gate said over the speaker, "Welcome to American Airlines Flight 5810 with service to... and when he turned to look at the screen over and behind his head to see where in the world we were going.. I hollered out, "Columbia, MO.!" Well, he tried to look all cool and not be embarrassed but it was funny. I said to the people sitting around me, I don't care if he knows where we're going as long as the pilot does. And they all laughed in agreement. 

When the stewardesses (sorry I don't know the new PC term- men do that job too- flight attendant?) were preparing to board, one said to the other, we're going to Columbia, MO., it's a nice little airport, easy to get in and out of, and you don't have to pay for parking. They both looked frazzled, like it had been a long day, and the older hispanic lady (late 40's-mid 50's?) told the younger blonde talking (late 30's-mid 40's?) she had never been there before. I'm thinking, it will probably be a culture shock for you, size-wise!

As I made my way down the aisle to my window seat, there was a lady sitting in it. I said, trying to sound all cool and stern, "You're in my seat." She looked at me startled and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'll move." I started laughing and said, "You're fine, you can set by the window." And I sat down in the aisle seat. She was telling me it was confusing and hard to read. I agreed. I said, "Well, you're in seat 17F and I'm in seat 17D." She looked at me funny and said, "My ticket says seat 17A." I said, "Well, then you are across the aisle by the window over there." There was a lady seated in the aisle seat, 17C, who looked across, smiled and nodded. The younger lady next to me said, "Well, I'll just wait until the plane is loaded and then I'll move if I need to. They told me it wasn't full." I said, "yeah, maybe nobody will sit where I am."

I remarked that it was interesting to me why they had left out "B" and "E". You would think it would just be A,B,C,D but I guess they want to confuse people.

The hispanic lady walked up behind us and starting ranting about the alphabet, how people get confused, why they just didn't keep it in order, and where did they lose the other alphabet letters? I couldn't hear all of her goodnatured rant, but what I did hear was funny and everybody in ear shot was laughing hardily.

So we started chatting, the misplaced lady in seat 17F (my seat) and I, just small talk, and as my s-i-l, Will would say, "it doesn't matter," as he would say about much of my story so far! Lol

As more people boarded, someone had the ticket for 18F, right behind me, but there was a woman already there. SHE then said, "Oh, I'm in the wrong seat. I'm supposed to be in 17D." I told the lady next to me, well now you'll have to move." I got up, she moved across, I sat in my seat, and then the lady in 18F came up to 17D. (Do you see why I'm a bit nervous about women pilots?)

The hispanic attendant(?) came to our row and said, "Do you need help?" I replied, "No, we are just playing musical chairs." Lady attendant, "Do you all know each other?" Me, "No, but we are getting acquainted." And we all laughed rather loudly. So the hispanic lady attendant said, "I can see you all are going to be my fun group."

My original seat mate (who moved across the aisle) is Sarah Slade, a teacher at Russell Elementary in COMO, who happens to have a daughter at Rock Bridge High School, so she is going to tell her daughter to seek out my daughter, Danielle, who is a new school nurse there. She told me her daughter is diabetic so she and Danielle would probably become acquainted anyway.

When the hispanic lady came to ask if I wanted something to drink, I just politely asked for water, no ice. She said, "You all are quiet now, what happened?" I just told her we were trying to behave. I said, "You know, I was all set to ask you for all kinds of beer I know you don't have, like Guiness, or Logboat Snapper, just to give you a hard time. But since it's the end of your day, I changed my mind, thinking I should just be nice." The blonde lady walks up behind her and she tells her I was going to ask her for all kinds of beer I know they don't have just to give her a hard time. They both then started laughing. They were obviously getting tired and slap happy, but it was nice to hear them laughing, especially since they looked so worn out when they boarded the plane.

My new seat mate, didn't get her name, is the wife of one of the new strength and fitness football coaches at MIZZOU. She said this is their 11th school (some she mentioned were Memphis, Louisville, Arkansas, and the SF 49ers- saying it was nice to get back to the SEC). She said her husband's name was Schmidt? Schmitt? She told me he had been living in their new house for three weeks on an air mattress, with one plate, and one pan to cook with. Their moving truck got lost somewhere in Arizona and was 8 days beyond the contracted delivery date, but the company had found it and it was supposed to arrive tomorrow (which is now today). She laughed, taking it all in stride. She said we were just going to buy new stuff, as they had taken out an extra insurance policy just in case (her father is a retired insurance man and had insisted), but decided to hold off in case they located the truck. She was wondering what condition their belongings would be in, or if they would even all be there, but she was approaching today like an adventure. (I really liked her). She was flying in from San Jose, where she will continue to live and work, with plans to fly in once a month to see hubby. She told me this was her second trip to COMO since he had taken the position. I told her about D. Rowe's and she wrote it down and looked it up on her laptop, saying they would go check it out. I could tell she and her husband would enjoy checking out Logboat, so she pulled that up on her laptop too, and laughed when she saw the can of Snapper, saying, "There it is!"

The lady in 17C looked very familiar. I thought she may have been the wife of one of the COMO preachers I know. So later in the flight I asked her, "Ma'am are you a preachers wife?" She looked at me funny and said, "No way in hell!" I laughed and told her I didn't mean to offend her, but she looked so familiar I thought I had met her somewhere.

The hispanic flight attendant kept coming back to our row. I said, "You can't just hang out here. You have work to do. You have to walk up and down the aisle acting like you're doing something!" And everybody around laughed loudly again, including her. I know that it was good for her to laugh because she obviously had experienced not one of her better work days.

Then the blonde attendant came out of first class to see why we were having so much fun. I said, "You're obviously not from COMO with that accent. Where are you from? She said, "Guess." So all four of us took a shot, my guess being Arkansas, but we were all wrong. She was from Roscoe, TX. I told her I was flying home from Lubbock, as she had mentioned Lubbock in her explanation to the ladies as to Roscoe's location.

I can sit by people and not say much at all, but it is so much more fun to get to know them a bit. Laughter is good medicine. I need all of that kind of medicine I can get!

I didn't include this in my original post because the story was so long already, but waiting in the Dallas Airport I was talking to a little bit older couple. After we visited for awhile, I asked if they lived in Columbia. They told me they lived in Harrisburg. That's just 20 miles from COMO I said-know where it is- went to nursing school with four girls from there. They knew two of the four of them. They were going to tell one in particular they had met me in DFW. They asked me my name and I told them, but I added, you won't have to remember my name, just say the old guy in your class- she'll know! July, 2017