Adventures in Flight - Love in the Air

I love flying Southwest Airlines, not just because I work there, but because you can just interact with some real characters.

I was coming home from a conference in Connecticut on Friday evening. It was a week-long course and I was exhausted from all the learning and of course, the evening adventures as well. When I'm tired, I like to choose a seat near the engines for the sole reason that people are less likely to talk in that area because it tends to be noisier. It was a full flight so there were folks all around us.

As we prepared for landing, the flight attendants made their usual announcement for everyone to put their chairs and trays in the "full and upright position". They breezed through the cabin looking for offenders several times. On one such pass, one of them stopped to ask someone behind me to comply.

From behind me I hear a loud, upper-Midwest accent, "Jack put your chair up. Jack, your chair! She wants you to put your chair up." Obviously the man couldn't hear well because each time, she got louder.

"Jack, push the button!"

I started smiling to myself and the lady next to me was doing the same thing. "It must be longtime love," she said, and that made the situation adorable. I nodded in agreement with a big grin.

We landed and this older couple got even more adorable. I asked her what part of Minnesota she was from (I have dear friends up there and just love the accent.) She smiled and told me that she was actually from Wisconsin. Then with a twinkle in her eye she added with that nasaly twang known in that area of the world, "Kenosha, Wisconsin. Home of Hanes Underwear and Snap-On Tools."

This couple is a widow and widower, I found out later from the passenger who sat next to them on the flight. I assumed they'd been married for years. It turns out, they've been living together "in sin", as she called it, for over 20 years and are still very much in love.

I hope to be that wry and that much in love when I'm in my older years.