Skip to main content

Up, Up and Away . . .





One of my favorite memories of growing up was when my sister Kelli and I got to fly, by ourselves, from our home in Milwaukee to visit our grandparents in Champaign Illinois. We were dressed similarly - in matching suits of different colors. I believe we were 9 and 8 and so proud that our parents were letting us on this big adventure. It also meant changing planes at O'Hare airport! We were instructed on how to get help looking for our gate and reminded just how large O'Hare was. We felt grown up!

Our father travelled a lot for business, so he gave us valuable information about that monstrous airport (that it had seven 'fingers' was one tidbit I still remember - he was referring to the terminals). It shouldn't have surprised either Kelli or I that upon landing, our Dad would just happen to be at O'Hare too. He claimed that he too was there to change flights and since we had a little bit of time, wouldn't it be great to have lunch together. So the three of us went to the Admiral's Club and then he escorted us to our gate for the rest of the journey to Champaign.

I had a chance to think about that trip (and others of my youth) when John and I had a layover at O'Hare this past weekend. It's way more monstrous and flying is a way different experience! My memories of 'airline' travel may be colored a bit by time and nostalgia, but it used to be a first rate way to travel. You were treated respectfully by the flight crews, served beverages and even full meals if the flight was longer than a couple hours. On shorter flights, you were served a snack and beverages. Since my Dad was a frequent traveler he had a membership in the Admiral's Club - a place where you could go to relax and be served more beverages and snacks and sit in a comfortable and quieter atmosphere.

Well, those days are long gone - they've gone up, up and away!

The overall impression is being herded like cattle - from the lines at the ticket counters, to the TSA checkpoints, to the waiting areas, to the overcrowded dining or shopping options, to the plane, off the plane, through baggage claim and onto the taxi queues. All the while fellow travelers can almost be heard, voicing "Mooooooooo-ve out of my way!"

I won't go into the details of the debacle - suffice it to say we were supposed to arrive in Grand Rapids at 11:30 a.m. and arrived instead at 3:30 a.m. 


I'm sure some of the chaos of airline travel is that there are so many people flying these days -  there are a lot of deals out there and people are finding ways to afford the trips. Airlines are trying to maximize their profits (or even make one) so they are filling planes often over capacity to make it cost effective. And those seats just seem to get closer together - and I don't even have long legs!


So this year for spring break, we're not flying. Or even driving. I'm going to see  if train travel has lost it's luster too!

Comments

  1. gretchenMarch 11, 2011 at 2:50 PM

    Kathleen, I love your story about your Dad and you an Kelli at the airport! What a great experience for an 8 year old! Thanks for sharing this! And great to "see" you and Kelli!
    Gretchen

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Friday Night Lights

Friday night lights were blazing last week - when for the first time in the history of our little town, the Saugatuck Indians clinched the district title! You can see the sheer joy on Matthew's face and the pride in his father's eyes in the picture above. Leading up to and during the game, there were several things that made the victory even more sweet. The first being that the sports writers in the area, to a person, all predicted the opponents, Climax-Scotts, to win. They'd had a perfect season - until Friday. The second was that we had to travel quite a distance (nearly 90 minutes) to get to the game. And the weather was frigid and snow was blowing - thankfully it was blowing towards the Climax-Scotts stands and was at our backs. And then our quarterback injured his shoulder and had to sit out for a good portion of the game. Thankfully, the replacement quarterback (a sophomore called up for the playoffs from the junior varsity team) did not let the stress effect his ...
3 comments
Read more

Vulnerability hangover

I recently blogged about my own #MeToo experiences and then went silent. (At least on the blog). Those posts have been read by over 1000 people, and that's a lot for this tiny little blog about living a life with MS and God and with a sense of humor. Suddenly, I felt like I was living in a world where people that read my blog had x-ray vision and could see my nakedness - but I didn't know who they were. It wasn't a good feeling. And then I heard someone discuss Brene Brown, in particular what she describes as a 'vulnerability hangover'. It's essentially the feeling of regret, like after a night of binge drinking, when you think "What did I do/say?" and then "I think I'll just hide out from the world." If you've never had that experience, kudos to you. It's shame, pure and simple, ugly and raw. So, now I'm on a Brene Brown binge, including all of her TED talks. Including this one on shame:  Brene, listening to shame ...
Post a Comment
Read more

When being negative is positive and other wonky 'things' in the time of Covid

The world is upside down and back ass-ward. Know what I mean? I was chatting with a cousin the other day and her potential exposure to the corona virus. I wrote, "I'll say prayers for negative results for all. Don't like negativity but these days negative is a positive." Back ass-ward. Remember when we first went in to shut-down mode in mid-March? We were told that it was to flatten the curve of hospital admissions so that our ICU's didn't run out of capacity and to ease the virus' spread. It felt then like we were in this together, all of us were going to help beat this virus and stay home. (Aside from the run on toilet paper!) We were committed, or so it seemed, and our closets were going to be cleaned, our junk drawers were going to be a thing of the past, our garages/basements/and other yucky places were going to gleam. We were going to read "War and Peace" or "Hamilton" or other weighty tomes that we'd always wanted to read. We...
Post a Comment
Read more