My "thing" of being a planner was cemented early on.
Before the internet, before Google, Google Maps, and GPS's,
there was AAA, tourbooks, the Triptik and the Phone.
I remember getting the triptik (kind of like Google Maps on paper) and planning that we would arrive at such and such time and we had an hour to stop for lunch at this Exit etc.
I remember my parents going through the AAA Book and calling hotels.
No websites in those days.
And airlines - you had to call each one, put something on hold, and then call back the one you felt gave you the greatest deal with the flight times you wanted!
I started studying to be a Travel Agent, but then is it any surprise I ended up working for an airline?
Here are some of the funny things I remember:
In our apartment on Abbington Drive, with no one else home, I would go into the kitchen, put on the speaker, and make pretend inflight announcements.
"We are preparing for landing, Please stow all trays and buckle your seatbelts"
"We will be landing shortly"
but my all time my favorite was the oxygen mask demo, which I still love to
imitate, especially with the accompanying hand gestures displaying how the masks drop from the ceiling and how you are supposed to place them "over your nose and mouth" and "adjusting your mask first before those of any children you might be travelling with"
I don't remember ever really wanting to be a flight attendant, I just wanted to make the announcements.
Before Google, and inhome wifi, and even before AOL - There was Compuserve, and Dad showed me how to login and look at various things. Well, I happened to find this thing called "Eaasy Sabre" which was a way to access American Airline's flight schedules. I believe some Travel Agents probably used it, but I decided I could to - They gave you format of the entries, so I was pulling up flight schedules to different places, etc - whatever I ran across. I knew enough not to actually book anything, thank goodness. Whether I knew it was an extra, not included, you must pay for this service - I'm not sure, but I just clicked ok and into American Airlines I went. Dad put the kibbosh on this after the first $400 Compuserve bill, because the Sabre thing was a pay per minute service. OOPS! But I was just playing.
The first flight I ever took, I believe was in 1980 or 1981 to visit family in El Paso. This was soon followed by a trip Mom and I took to Denver in 1982, on Continental Airlines to see friends. On that flight, which had the old Continental orange and red sun livery, I remember getting up to use the bathrooom, and the the inflight had the cart in the aisle an asked "What do you want to drink?" I responded, "I need to go to the bathroom." He responded, "What do you want to drink" and I replied again "I really need to go!" I couldn't understand why he didn't get it. He finally moved the cart.
I don't remember the year, sometime in the 1980s - We took a family trip one long weekend to Boston, flying out of Newark. For those of you that are airline history buffs, we flew out of the North Terminal in Newark which was the original terminal building built by People's Express before the Continental Merger.
We boarded the flight and took off uneventfully. I remember Mom sitting on the aisle, Dad in the middle, me in the window. Dad brought these pens for me to use and color with to distract me. (I was really young). I was coloring and I remember asking Dad explicitly:
"What time do we GO DOWN?"
His eyes got really wide open and
he answered very sharply, "Jeff, don't ever say it like that again"
I just meant what time did we land, geez.
Out of the mouths of babes.
Fast forward to 1988 - My parents sent to me El Paso for the summer when I was 14, to visit my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents. I flew on American Airlines, Newark to Dallas, and then connecting to El Paso.
This was back in the days when most flights had full meals. Since we didn't know what would be served, my parents special ordered a hamburger and fries for me. When it came time for the meal, the burger and fries were delivered to my seat, wrapped in plastic from the kitchen, but had "GAHB" in Black marker written over the plastic. I was confused and thought I had Mr. Gahb's meal.
GAHB meant Great American Hamburger.
Flying to Orlando in 1992 as a High School graduation gift.
We were leaving at night, after Dad got off work.
Mom and I had this brilliant idea to spend the day in the city (NYC), see a play, shop, eat, etc and then meet Dad at the airport.
We were probably late getting the cab back to the airport, and Mom wasn't getting in the cab fast enough for my liking, so I gave her a little nudge.
Never heard the end of that one! I almost got killed. That day, I learned, you never push Mom into a cab. Scratch that, never push Mom, period.
If that wasn't bad enough, then our flight was delayed getting into Orlando.
We split up after arrival, I think I sat with the bags and Dad went to the bathroom, He didn't know where I was, and I watched him circle the baggage area looking for us. He finally found me, and I was so proud of myself. I even told him I saw him and I wanted to see how long it would take him to find me.
I was such a little shit.
I think somewhere around 1992 or 1993 - Mom and I flew to New Mexico to look at colleges. I was already in college at this time - but I was looking at colleges in NM to transfer to. Interestingly - ASU in Tempe (about 15 minutes from me now) was also one I considered, and then eliminated as being too big of a school. We flew Newark to Houston, and then Houston to Albuquerque.
Our flight was delayed Houston to Albuquerque..When we finally boarded the aircraft, it was late, we had been in the airport for hours, and my Mom with her 500 carryons...We got on the plane, and I was in front of Mom..found our seats towards the back. I think I heard my Mom say to the inflight something about putting the bags in the overhead, and by then I was just DONE.
"THERE'S ROOM RIGHT OVER HERE, MOTHER"
(I never called Mom "MOTHER"....Frankly, I am suprised that I lived to tell.)
But Mom retorted right back "MOTHER, uh oh, Guess I'm in trouble now"
The first time I took Mom on a trip with my airline benefits, we flew to Las Vegas, via Phoenix. Arrived in Phoenix, and the flight was full, so I decided to try Southwest. Left Mom upstairs, went to the Ticket Counter to buy the Southwest Tickets, and then went back upstairs to Mom.
"Let's go, HUSTLE, HUSTLE. The next Southwest Flight is in 15 minutes"
"You hustle, hustle, I'll catch the next damn flight"
The first time I took Dad on a daytrip, we flew to San Francisco for the day. I ran him (for as fast as he could go) through the airport, onto the airtrain and around the city on the BART. He was exhausted, but we walked, rode, and ate our way through San Francisco. Some things don't change.
