Last weekend I was on a plane from Atlanta going to
Memphis. I typically bury my head in a
book and pop in the earphones to listen to my iPod. Most often as the plane boards I smile, nod
my head to the person next to me and keep the exchange to a cursory hi, how are
you, and mention the weather. The book
generally comes out once the plane lifts off the runway and the music comes on
at 10,000 feet. Before I could get the
book open a gentleman sat next to me and started a conversation. This guy hooked me by asking me if Memphis
was home…it kind of is, sort of is; probably so. Memphis is not my roots, not where either of
my two residences are, but a place where I spent over half my life. The conversation moved forward and I
discovered that we both knew some of the same people (small world!). We talked about the politics and state of
affairs in Memphis and surrounding areas.
We talked about business. He showed
me the book he was using to teach college manufacturing and production management,
I told him about what I was doing at the hospital that had its roots in
manufacturing. He was retired military
and I was also a veteran. I found out his
kids went to the same high school as I did – 10 years or so past my reign of
terror there. We talked about
healthcare. His daughter is in healthcare and is married
to the Chief of Pediatric Medicine at the children’s hospital in Memphis. We ended our hour trip, with neither of us cracking
the books we intended to read, and talked about a chance meeting at IHOP the
next morning where I had a birthday breakfast date with my granddaughter. I was there, and he wasn’t, but for once this
deviation from my normal behaviour on a plane was one I enjoyed.
On the return leg of this same trip I was flying from
Atlanta to Charleston. As I boarded the plane, I scanned the faces of my fellow
passengers and one man stood out among the rest. He was 3 seats in front of me. He was dark skinned with a white goatee and smartly
dressed with a sport jacket and a Muslim cap.
I assumed from my observation that he was probably from Africa. All the passengers except one had boarded the
plane. That last passenger came to her
seat only to see it was occupied by the man I had noticed. The flight attendant asked the man to move to
his assigned seat which was next to mine.
The smile, and hello were extended and we were off. This time, I did get a few pages of my book
read. The flight attendants came through
the cabin offering complimentary drinks and a bag of peanuts. It was obvious, that the person next to me
spoke limited English, but he did say water and no ice. As I opened my bag of peanuts, I could see
through my peripheral vision the gentleman next to me was watching me intensely. He copied what I did in trying to open the
bag of peanuts, but it would not open. He quizzically looked at me and opened his
hands with his palms up and a shrug of the shoulders. I reached out with my palm open and he placed
the bag of peanuts in my hand. Indeed
this bag was a more difficult to open than mine, but I was able to open it for
him. He gave me a nod of thanks and ate
every morsel of his snack. It is hard to imagine someone never opening a bag
of peanuts, but I do understand this may be a novelty for this person…another
lesson in diversity for me.
When a plane lands, most of the passengers follow the
courteous protocol of an orderly exit, meaning each row is emptied before the
next row proceeds forward. You get the occasional
people who have connecting flights with little layover time who break that
routine and there is often a Type A jerk who just has to beat everyone else off
the plane. I was in a window seat. My seat neighbor was in the middle seat. He jumped out in front of the person in the
aisle seat on our row and aggressively moved to where he stored his luggage in
the overhead bin. Once he got his bags,
he continued to push forward to quickly get off the plane. I wrote this behavior off as a cultural
nuance. As I left the plane and entered
the boarding tunnel, I saw this same man in a wheel chair with his bags stowed
and an attendant behind the chair waiting for the rest of us to clear the ramp. Hurry up and wait is what we learned in the
military…I don’t think he was ever a member of our militia.
Yesterday, I went through the drive-thru at McDonald’s to
purchase a meal. The total came to
$4.56. I drove up to the first window
and gave the cashier $5.56. I was
expecting $1 back. I know my memory is
not what it once was, but I still can do basic math without a calculator. The cashier at the window took the money and
put it in the cash register. She pulled
out a dollar bill and then put it back. Then
she asked me how much I gave her. I told
her. She then gave me 30 cents in
return. I held at my hand and looked at
her with the facial expression that said, “you gotta be kidding me, really?” She
realized that there was a shortage in the amount of change she gave me. She gave me a couple more quarters and told
me she had set them on the cash register to give to me. My wife would have created a stink about it,
but I on the other hand felt bad for this young girl. I recognized that she did not know how to
count change. How much money is that
location losing or gaining (my 20 cents) because of the lack of competence? Or
maybe, she does know how to count change…maybe I just got hustled.
This weekend my wife also went to an eatery that has a
drive-thru window. She got her food and
paid for it, but it was less expensive than it usually was. She went home and looked at the receipt. Lo and behold, she received a senior discount
J. She was so offended that went online to see
what age this company considered senior.
She was past the age by a few years, so she felt better. I told her that in a few years it will be a
treat to eat out, and we’ll be asking for the senior discount if they forget to
mention it. I told her to enjoy it while
she can get it because she earned it.
It’s the new experiences that make life more interesting and adds more filler to our individual tome of wisdom.
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