Small Talk: We'll Be Right Back

[madmax]

19 hours ago, Bastet said:

I did that as a kid.  In a striking coincidence, Santa's favorite cookies were the same as my dad's (peanut butter).

My son asked me why Santa liked snickerdoodles so much when the only person he knew that really liked them was his dad.

20 hours ago, susannah said:

When we were all in the living room, one of us kids would pass out all the gifts so everyone had their pile, and we also would take turns opening a gift. There were just five of us. I think that is the best way, since then everyone is involved in seeing what everyone else got.

That's how we do it Christmas morning.  I hand out the first round, then whoever has finished a present hands out the next and we all take turns opening so that we can see what everyone got.

Christmas Eve with my in-laws, it's more of a free-for-all.  Someone hands someone a present, they open it, maybe you see what it was, maybe you don't.

8 hours ago, Leeds said:

I called my parents Mummy and Daddy until their deaths in their 80s.  One sibling called them Mother and Father, the other Mum and Dad, so between us we had all the bases covered.  (We still use the same names when talking about them together.)

I called my father Daddy until the day he died with me holding his hand.  My mother, well, she's Mum or her first name, if I'm aggravated that day.  My oldest calls me Mum or Mummy, my youngest calls me Mom.

[peacheslatour]

22 minutes ago, Nicmar said:

Whenever I hear the word Ovaltine I think of Ralphie in A Christmas Story.

"Son of a bitch!"

[Browncoat]

30 minutes ago, Nicmar said:

Whenever I hear the word Ovaltine I think of Ralphie in A Christmas Story.

I think of Frau Blucher (whinny!) in Young Frankenstein.

[peacheslatour]

25 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I think of Frau Blucher (whinny!) in Young Frankenstein.

"Sedagive?!

[Tom Holmberg]

9 hours ago, Leeds said:

I called my parents Mummy and Daddy until their deaths in their 80s.  One sibling called them Mother and Father, the other Mum and Dad, so between us we had all the bases covered.  (We still use the same names when talking about them together.)

I called mine Mater and Pater, which they hated. 😈

[susannah]

9 hours ago, Haleth said:

Your Santa sounds more fun than milk and cookies Santa.

When I was a kid we were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve but then it was a free-for-all Christmas morning.  For my own family we'd let the kids open the nonSanta gifts on Christmas Eve because they were all boring clothes and stuff.  They'd have to wait for Mom and Dad to get up (not before 6) on Christmas morning to open Santa gifts.  (We'd all have to wait 20 minutes for my husband to get the camera ready.)  Santa had kindly wrapped each kid's gifts in different paper and they'd have to check their stockings to see which paper was theirs.  Then they alternated opening them.  We still open each gift one at a time just so everyone can see what everyone else got.  Sure it takes longer but for us it's more fun.

It sure is! We always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve too when I was a kid. The wrapping of each person's in their own paper sounds like a good plan, not to have to mess with tags or getting anyone's mixed up!

[Prevailing Wind]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

Then came those early teen years when I was "Mother" (pronounced as "MUTH-errr";

I always called my mom "Mother" except for the Beatlemania years, when she was Mum. Daddy was always Daddy.

I was approaching 40, my mother was in her early 70s. She came to visit and said, "I got you something. Now if you see it and say, 'MUTH-urrrr,' that's OK, because I'll keep it."  She held up a sweater with wide pastel horizontal stripes and two white kitties facing each other on the front. I ran to my laundry basket and hauled out the SAME sweater (in a much larger size), showed it to her and said "MUTH-urrrr!"  I think she intentionally bought it in her size, hoping like hell I'd refuse it so she could keep it. 

We laughed together, because that happened with us SO often.  We were out shopping and she got out her new wallet to pay for her purchase and I had to show her MY new wallet - the exact same wallet. My brother always claimed I was too attached and tried to do everything Mother did, but it really was coincidence that we'd so often buy the same thing when we were separated by hundreds of miles. We'd often SAY the same thing at the same time, too. It was kind of spooky.

[peacheslatour]

38 minutes ago, susannah said:

It sure is! We always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve too when I was a kid. The wrapping of each person's in their own paper sounds like a good plan, not to have to mess with tags or getting anyone's mixed up!

I always got to open my BFF's present on Christmas Eve. In my later teen years we just started opening all of our presents on Christmas Eve. We would go to my aunt's house and then to my parent's friends house across the street. There my have been some drinking. 

[susannah]

5 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I always got to open my BFF's present on Christmas Eve. In my later teen years we just started opening all of our presents on Christmas Eve. We would go to my aunt's house and then to my parent's friends house across the street. There my have been some drinking. 

The truth may or may not be out now! 😀

[Prevailing Wind]

When I was little, the people three houses down always had an open house on Christmas Eve - Mrs. Caudle would even serve a giant turkey at midnight. When we first moved to Miami, we lived with my mom's parents while we were building our house next door.  I wasn't even four yet. I was put to bed. Apparently, my brother was already aware of the truth of Santa Claus, but kept it from me. The family still kept up the fantasy.  My brother was getting a bike and my father had to assemble it.  He was half-way done when it was time to go to the Caudles' house.

My parents, brother, and Nana went off to the party and left me sleeping in the front bedroom. My grandfather, a night owl, had his tiny bedroom on the other side of the house. I woke up, needing to pee. I'd always had an escort. Not knowing parents were out of the house, I kept calling for Mother, but Poppop didn't hear me. I finally decided to try to go pee by myself.  As I got up & started down the hall toward the bathroom, I looked into the living room. OMG! Santa had been here, putting together a bicycle and I woke up and SCARED HIM AWAY!!!  OH, noooooo.!!!!! I've ruined Christmas because I had to pee!!!

[susannah]

12 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

When I was little, the people three houses down always had an open house on Christmas Eve - Mrs. Caudle would even serve a giant turkey at midnight. When we first moved to Miami, we lived with my mom's parents while we were building our house next door.  I wasn't even four yet. I was put to bed. Apparently, my brother was already aware of the truth of Santa Claus, but kept it from me. The family still kept up the fantasy.  My brother was getting a bike and my father had to assemble it.  He was half-way done when it was time to go to the Caudles' house.

My parents, brother, and Nana went off to the party and left me sleeping in the front bedroom. My grandfather, a night owl, had his tiny bedroom on the other side of the house. I woke up, needing to pee. I'd always had an escort. Not knowing parents were out of the house, I kept calling for Mother, but Poppop didn't hear me. I finally decided to try to go pee by myself.  As I got up & started down the hall toward the bathroom, I looked into the living room. OMG! Santa had been here, putting together a bicycle and I woke up and SCARED HIM AWAY!!!  OH, noooooo.!!!!! I've ruined Christmas because I had to pee!!!

Oh poor one!! The things kids get in their heads with the information that they have jumbled in their heads! It's funny but I bet it wasn't funny for you at the time.  I would think though that your grandfather should have been where he could hear you if he was babysitting. In addition to having to use the bathroom, if a 3 year old is sick or scared, someone needs to be nearby, not on the other side of the house, in the dark, and your mother should have told you she was going out after you went to sleep.

Edited December 10, 2021 by susannah
typo

[Prevailing Wind]

It was kind of upsetting when it happened, but the next morning it was explained to me that Santa didn't have time to put the bike together - he just left the parts for Daddy to finish.

I was an adult when I realized just HOW Santa makes all his deliveries in one night - he's a time traveller.  When dawn approaches on Christmas Day, he goes back in time 12 hours & delivers as much as he can until he has to go back in time again and again and again until he's done.

If only UPS could do that!

[Bruinsfan]

25 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I was an adult when I realized just HOW Santa makes all his deliveries in one night - he's a time traveller.

Shhh, don't anybody spoil it for her!

[ABay]

Figuring that Santa would get plenty of cookies elsewhere, I left carrots for the reindeer.

[janie jones]

On 12/8/2021 at 10:46 AM, Browncoat said:

When I was little (pre-teen), we did always get a piece of fruit in the toe of our stockings.  Usually some citrus, but once or twice I got an apple instead.

We did, too, so I always put that in everyone's stockings. Apparently my sister and her husband don't do that, because one year one of my nieces asked why I always put a Cutie in the stockings.

On 12/8/2021 at 2:19 PM, Bastet said:

As for presents, we don't open them one person at a time, but my best friend's family did that when we were kids.  There were five people in that family, usually plus a grandparent and an aunt on Christmas, so it took for-fucking-ever and drove everyone but the dad - whose idea it was - nuts.  Finally they all told him nope, not doing it this way, since it took the whole morning. 

I think pacing is important. Now that I have nieces, there are 9 of us altogether for Christmas Eve, and I'd guess it takes about an hour, at least. I've been the present distributor for as long as I can remember, so I have a system for keeping things moving. I don't think that opening presents simultaneously sounds like much fun, to be honest. It's nice to see people opening their presents, and sometimes you want to talk about the item. Sometimes you want people to open them in a certain order.

[Gramto6]

When I first married late DH2 , the first Christmas together with my 2 young kids, he just put out boxes of things he had ordered online not labeled or anything for them to open. He had 5 adult adopted kids from his first marriage, I don't know what he did then...but when my kids opened boxes that were obviously for me  and others that were for one or the other... I said NO! this is not right and don't ever do it again! Gifts were meant to be individual and from then on he did... Wow from a guy that worshipped Christmas... but had no clue about gift giving...
 

[janie jones]

What was his thought process there? What was supposed to happen if someone opened something that was intended for someone else?

[susannah]

31 minutes ago, janie jones said:

We did, too, so I always put that in everyone's stockings. Apparently my sister and her husband don't do that, because one year one of my nieces asked why I always put a Cutie in the stockings.

I think pacing is important. Now that I have nieces, there are 9 of us altogether for Christmas Eve, and I'd guess it takes about an hour, at least. I've been the present distributor for as long as I can remember, so I have a system for keeping things moving. I don't think that opening presents simultaneously sounds like much fun, to be honest. It's nice to see people opening their presents, and sometimes you want to talk about the item. Sometimes you want people to open them in a certain order.

Exactly.

[Prevailing Wind]

From scratch our head commercials:
 

Quote

 

1 hour ago, Gramto6 said:

people were flushing baby wipes down the toilet

 

We actually had to send out an email: NO WIPES IN PIPES.  Just because it says it's flushable doesn't mean it is. The plumber told us that not even Kleenex is flushable, let alone paper towels or wet wipes.

[Gramto6]

1 hour ago, janie jones said:

What was his thought process there? What was supposed to happen if someone opened something that was intended for someone else?

No clue, he just thought a gift was a gift even if it really wasn't for you. You opened a box and if it was for you, great if not you passed it on... I have no idea where he came up with that with 5 grown  kids...just weird...

Edited December 11, 2021 by Gramto6

[Browncoat]

RE: opening gifts:  After our free-for-all, we had the extended pleasure of showing off our gifts.  My mother always asks everyone, "What did you get?"  So we still get the instant gratification of opening presents right away, but everyone else also gets to see what we got.  Works out better if something's a little disappointing (like silverware place settings when you're six.  I appreciate them now, but I certainly did not when I was six.).

[smittykins]

6 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

From scratch our head commercials:
 

We actually had to send out an email: NO WIPES IN PIPES.  Just because it says it's flushable doesn't mean it is. The plumber told us that not even Kleenex is flushable, let alone paper towels or wet wipes.

My complex doesn’t allow wet wipes to be flushed, either.  I keep a supply of pet poop bags near the toilet, and put them in one before throwing it in the garbage.

[mojoween]

Hello all!  I wasn’t able to share one of these last year (we all know why, obvs) but we were able to get back to see Santa this year.  As you can see, it was a huge hit.  

[susannah]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

Hello all!  I wasn’t able to share one of these last year (we all know why, obvs) but we were able to get back to see Santa this year.  As you can see, it was a huge hit.  

Did the dog like it? I can't tell!

[chessiegal]

We flew for the first time today in about 3 years. I knew we would be wearing masks for many hours which I am not used to. It wasn't too bad. And apologies to Dr. Rick, we printed out our boarding passes before going to the airport and I packed plenty of snacks. 

We ended up having Southwest print out our boarding passes at the airport because the ones we printed at home weren't marked pre-TSA. We took our pre-TSA numbers with us, and the agent was able to pull it up to get preTSA on the boarding passes.

[cinsays]

11 hours ago, chessiegal said:

We flew for the first time today in about 3 years. I knew we would be wearing masks for many hours which I am not used to. It wasn't too bad. And apologies to Dr. Rick, we printed out our boarding passes before going to the airport and I packed plenty of snacks. 

We ended up having Southwest print out our boarding passes at the airport because the ones we printed at home weren't marked pre-TSA. We took our pre-TSA numbers with us, and the agent was able to pull it up to get preTSA on the boarding passes.

ha

that ad bugs me because i always take my own snacks, what's wrong with or old fogieish about that?!??!

[Tom Holmberg]

19 minutes ago, cinsays said:

ha

that ad bugs me because i always take my own snacks, what's wrong with or old fogieish about that?!??!

It's not like the airline's going to feed you.  I always think its funny to watch old shows where they make fun of airline food (which wasn't that bad), when today you barely get drinks.

[chessiegal]

1 minute ago, Tom Holmberg said:

It's not like the airline's going to feed you.  I always think its funny to watch old shows where they make fun of airline food (which wasn't that bad), when today you barely get drinks.

No kidding on the drinks. Southwest is not selling anything with alcohol. I have an irrational fear of flying. I take Ativan an hour before boarding. I always have gin with me in carry on in the approved clear bag with (4) 3 oz. bottles filled with gin. My husband said to me - you know the airline won't let you bring alcohol on the flight. He's wrong - you could always bring it on, you just couldn't consume it on the flight. I told him I'll do what I always do - get some Sprite at the airport and lots of ice, mix myself a good strong drink in my insulated drinking bottle, and consume on board. I've always done that, and yesterday was no exception. Between Ativan and gin I can be a fairly content flyer.

[Bruinsfan]

I've never been particularly nervous about flying, but I do have a curmudgeonly attitude toward babies and incessantly talking strangers on a plane. Add in all the inconveniences and hoops one has to leap through post-9/11, and I only fly if I absolutely have to go somewhere that can't be driven to in a single day.

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, Bruinsfan said:

I've never been particularly nervous about flying, but I do have a curmudgeonly attitude toward babies and incessantly talking strangers on a plane. Add in all the inconveniences and hoops one has to leap through post-9/11, and I only fly if I absolutely have to go somewhere that can't be driven to in a single day.

I can recall flying in the 1960s when you were treated like royalty, today its like being in steerage on the Titanic.

[susannah]

5 hours ago, cinsays said:

ha

that ad bugs me because i always take my own snacks, what's wrong with or old fogieish about that?!??!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, in fact it is the smart thing to do, unless it is something with a smell that can bother other passengers. You don't get anything on the plane and airport prices are through the roof. I have wondered for a while about whether flights should serve alcohol at all anymore, and refuse to admit anyone who has obviously been drinking, on board. There may always have been a problem here or there with an inebriated passenger, but it's out of control now with assaults on flight attendants becoming frequent.

[Bastet]

I've always loved flying, and still do, but it has definitely changed a lot over the years. 

From back when planes had a smoking section (I'm glad that has changed!), I love Designing Women's Julia saying, when Suzanne wonders where their seats are, "I don't know, but if history teaches us anything, mine will be next to a baby who smokes."

[Tom Holmberg]

9 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I've always loved flying, and still do, but it has definitely changed a lot over the years. 

From back when planes had a smoking section (I'm glad that has changed!)

Agreed about smoking sections on planes (or anywhere else for that matter). The university I went to was one of those modern buildings with no windows that opened, in the classrooms you could barely see the prof. for the thick cloud of cigarette smoke. (In the lounges in the student union it was an entirely different kind of smoke.)

[chessiegal]

My husband read not offering alcohol on flights is due to unruly passengers. Fortunately we had none on a completely full flight. In fact, everyone was well behaved and mostly even polite. 
 

I used to fly a lot for work and not be bothered by it. Several scary experiences, including seeing fire come out an engine during takeoff and making an emergency landing complete with us assuming crash position and being greeted with fire trucks. One time when a nice man realized I was white knuckling it during turbulence started engaging me in conversation and mentioned his wife was the same way. She got meds from her doctor and he said now a pill and a glass of wine and she didn’t care about anything. I’m a chemist for goodness sakes - better living through chemistry. I should have thought of that. It amuses me when I see my online medical record the first thing it says is “Phobia-fear of flying.” I know my fear is irrational but that doesn’t make it any less real.

[Prevailing Wind]

BUT...when they allowed smoking on planes, they scrupulously "cleaned" the air. Now, not so much. You're more likely to catch an airborne disease now than you were back when there was smoking allowed.

The last time I flew, I had such a horrible, humiliating experience with TSA, I swore I'd never fly again. People with faux knees are treated like criminals. It *might* have more humiliating had they made me drop my pants to inspect my knee, but not by much.

[Bastet]

1 minute ago, chessiegal said:

I know my fear is irrational but that doesn’t make it any less real.

Phobias are, by definition, irrational; people who try to explain to us (my phobia is of IV needles [not needles in general - I have tattoos - just needles that go into a vein]) why the thing we have a phobia of is perfectly harmless completely miss the point.  And people who are condescending about it suck.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

My husband read not offering alcohol on flights is due to unruly passengers. Fortunately we had none on a completely full flight. In fact, everyone was well behaved and mostly even polite. 
 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by peacheslatour

[Haleth]

Here's a fun topic:  Most interesting thing to happen to you on a plane.

We were flying to Mexico 4 years ago for our daughter's wedding.  Right in front of us an elderly woman keeled over in her seat.  The flight attendants did what they were trained to do, but lacking the medical knowledge they called over the PA for a doctor.  Fortunately there were a couple nurses on the flight who rushed up to help.  I kept thinking, OMG this woman just died, but after several minutes they were able to bring her around.  We were diverted to another airport so she could be removed from the plane on a gurney.  It was pretty awful having a front row seat to all the commotion.

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

Here's a fun topic:  Most interesting thing to happen to you on a plane.

Don't have a good plane story, but do have a good El train story.  I was on the El when the train stopped at a El stop, the door opened and a large German Shepherd got on the car by itself.  It stalked up and down the aisle and finally lay down against one of the doors.  In those days the door opened inward, so when the train stopped at the next station the startled dog jumped up and leapt out the door just as two old ladies were entering the same door.  They screamed and started running down the platform with the dog (playfully) chasing them and trying to jump up on them.  The conductor shut the door and the train left the station with the ladies fleeing down the platform with the dog in pursuit.

[Bruinsfan]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

Here's a fun topic:  Most interesting thing to happen to you on a plane.

I once flew into Peoria through a tornado cell in a 12-seater plane. It was my first time in such a small aircraft, so I assumed the roller-coaster turbulence was just business as usual for something that light. It was raining on us as we offloaded our luggage and ran for the terminal. Then the warning sirens went off.

After things calmed down I called a hotel shuttle and ended up riding with the flight crew, who may not have realized I was one of their passengers given the stressful situation. The copilot told the pilot she had tried to circle around the storm front, but when the funnel cloud changed direction she thought it was going to get us!

I'm very grateful she didn't tell us how close the call was while we were in the air!

[Annber03]

I was on a plane that flew around a thunderstorm once. We were flying back from California, heading to Minneapolis, and I guess there were some really bad storms in Colorado, and our pilot was forced to fly around them. I was sitting by the window, so I could see the tops of the thunderheads and the lightning and everything. On the one hand, it was kind of a neat image, but on the other hand, that was my second time being on a plane, and of course, flying around a thunderstorm is a bumpy experience, so I was gripping the seat the whole time like, "Please stay in the air, please stay in the air..." :p. 

That whole flight was a real doozy from start to finish, though. We were delayed from taking off for two hours, then we flew around the thunderstorms, then when we did land in Minneapolis we landed at the wrong gate, so they had to get us to the right one, and then after we finally exited the plane my dad had told us that apparently they'd been getting low on fuel during that flight, so that was fun to learn. And then it took forever for us to get our luggage, because there was some kind of mix-up. We were supposed to be back in Minneapolis by, like, nine, ten something at night - we didn't get back until around midnight, and didn't leave until close to three in the morning. 

Didn't help that it got really warm on the plane after a time, and finally, one lady was so fed up with all the stress of the flight that she started loudly ranting that she was going to just walk off the plane right then and there.

We hadn't landed yet. 

[Prevailing Wind]

The first time I ever flew, I was going from Miami to Asheville, NC. This was back in 68, the day after RFK was assassinated. The flight from Miami served breakfast!  It stopped in Jacksonville to pick up more passengers and flew on to Atlanta, where, of course, I had to change planes.  Did you know in 68 some airlines STILL had propeller planes?  I got one. It was, in actual time, a short flight, but I was SO airsick, I thought the damn flight would never end. (I wasn't sick enough to use the barf bag). They served lunch. The Navy kid sitting next to me was amused at my queasiness, but I got back at him by being amused that he couldn't figure out how to open the salt. Really, I just wanted to die. That I ever got back on a plane was a minor miracle.

[Bastet]

I've thankfully never had any major mishaps, so I guess my most interesting experience on a plane was sitting next to Ray Charles.  I've sat next to or near several celebrities over the years, and I normally don't say much more than hello, but we wound up talking on and off for the entire flight because he was quite the Chatty Cathy!

[Moose135]

I’ve had a number of “interesting” things happen in airplanes, but probably the most memorable happen 35 years ago this week, December 16, 1986. I was a young Air Force co-pilot flying the KC-135 tanker, stationed at Grissom AFB north of Indianapolis. We were scheduled for a typical mission, some practice refueling with a B-52 then a navigation leg, where the Nav directed us using readings the Boom Operator took using a sextant, then back home to beat up the pattern for a while. My Aircraft Commander was trying to upgrade to Instructor Pilot, so we had another IP along. The night before, I get a call saying our mission was changed – we were going to refuel a B-1 bomber, which had only started to enter service at the time. Turns out it was the last of the original B-1A development aircraft, being flown to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio – he was going to be light on fuel to make it into the short museum runway, but if the weather wouldn’t allow him to land, we were going to have to give him fuel to get back to California.

We launch early in the morning, meet up with the B-1, made sure we could pass him gas, then hung out until he landed and cleared us off. We then went on our original mission, hit the B-52, flew the nav leg, and headed back to Grissom. Being the middle of December in Indiana, there was a snowstorm and we couldn’t land, so we diverted to KI Sawyer AFB on the upper peninsula of Michigan. We got some gas, checked the weather, and made some plans. The AC and IP wanted to try back at Grissom, but looking at the forecast, I knew we weren’t getting in, and if we came back to Sawyer, the weather was going to be crappy by the time we got back. Two majors outranked one lieutenant, so off we go…didn’t get in to Grissom, and headed back to Sawyer. By the time we get there, it’s dark, low clouds, gusty winds blowing around the heavy falling snow. The IP and AC were in the front seats, and I was playing Co-pilot from the jump seat between and behind them. We shot the instrument approach twice without landing. On the third try, as we got to “decision height” 200 feet above the ground, and descending at 600 feet per minute, one of the pilots said “I think I see the runway.” All I could see was the glow of the approach strobe lights through the blowing snow. Not wanting to die that night, I keyed the intercom button and in my best command voice said “GO AROUND!” They pushed up the power, went around, and we headed to Minot AFB in North Dakota, where it was about 6 degrees, but clear weather since the storm had blown through. We spent the night and flew home to Grissom the next day.

[susannah]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I've thankfully never had any major mishaps, so I guess my most interesting experience on a plane was sitting next to Ray Charles.  I've sat next to or near several celebrities over the years, and I normally don't say much more than hello, but we wound up talking on and off for the entire flight because he was quite the Chatty Cathy!

Cool!

[CrazyInAlabama]

I was on a big jet (767? 777?) from D.C. to Atlanta, and just past halfway, a passenger was having chest pains.    They called for a doctor, and one was on board.     He took vitals, talked to the man, and then told the pilot to have the EMTs meet us at Atlanta.     That was the fastest trip to the ground, no circling, straight in landing, and right to the terminal. 

 It was bizarre having an entire airport stopped, and everything cleared right to the jetway.    I still remember looking out the window of the plane, and seeing all of the aircraft stopped, and seeing the pilots looking at us as we taxied by.    That was a very quick taxi too, the EMTs boarded and took the patient off, and he looked fine by then.    I'm hoping it wasn't a heart issue, and he was fine.   

Edited December 15, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[Haleth]

Many years ago my husband and I were invited to a business convention in Copenhagen.  We decided to take the kids too on our buck and stay a few extra days.  The day we were to leave was stormy in the NY metro area so we couldn't leave from our city and get to our connection in time.  We spent a lovely night in Newark.  We managed to get out the next afternoon but instead of flying to Denmark we were routed through Shannon then Heathrow, and then into Copenhagen.  Every connection was a race to see if we'd make it.  By the time we were on the last leg my son was sick to his stomach.  All the stress and lack of eating and sleeping was too much.  Then the flight attendant came around asking if we'd like a tuna sandwich.  Oy.  The poor kid made it as far as the taxi before he threw up.  Our luggage didn't get there for another 24 hours.  It was a Sunday night when we arrived, in the same clothes we'd been wearing for 3 days, and the only thing open that sold clothes was a Planet Hollywood.  PH tee shirts for everyone! 

Why yes, we did have a wonderful time.

[peacheslatour]

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

Many years ago my husband and I were invited to a business convention in Copenhagen.  We decided to take the kids too on our buck and stay a few extra days.  The day we were to leave was stormy in the NY metro area so we couldn't leave from our city and get to our connection in time.  We spent a lovely night in Newark.  We managed to get out the next afternoon but instead of flying to Denmark we were routed through Shannon then Heathrow, and then into Copenhagen.  Every connection was a race to see if we'd make it.  By the time we were on the last leg my son was sick to his stomach.  All the stress and lack of eating and sleeping was too much.  Then the flight attendant came around asking if we'd like a tuna sandwich.  Oy.  The poor kid made it as far as the taxi before he threw up.  Our luggage didn't get there for another 24 hours.  It was a Sunday night when we arrived, in the same clothes we'd been wearing for 3 days, and the only thing open that sold clothes was a Planet Hollywood.  PH tee shirts for everyone! 

Why yes, we did have a wonderful time.

When we went to France, we got stuck on the tarmac in Detroit for four hours. It was about 85f outside and we had no A/C, they wouldn't let us get out of our seats or use the bathrooms. We finally took off in a thunder and lightning storm, the sky was bright purple.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 12/15/2021 at 11:42 AM, peacheslatour said:

When we went to France, we got stuck on the tarmac in Detroit for four hours. It was about 85f outside and we had no A/C, they wouldn't let us get out of our seats or use the bathrooms. We finally took off in a thunder and lightning storm, the sky was bright purple.

I was on a flight to NYC (LGA) on a day that it was about that temperature and the plane was stuck on the tarmac after landing because the taxiway was so soft that the tires sunk in and the plane couldn't taxi itself to the terminal!

[PrincessPurrsALot]

20 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I can actually believe that twenty-somethings won't think of packing their own snacks, until they get sticker shock and the next time they fly they'll be a little wiser.  I can see business people not bringing a day's worth of snacks, but all other people pretty much want to avoid the hassle and high prices of what's available at the airport.

I work in tech.  Most companies I have worked at provide snacks to employees.  It is very common, regardless of age, that folks prep for a trip by grabbing snacks from the company kitchen to bring with them.  Business travellers often have their own preferred snacks, etc. since we know how likely delays are and what it's like to land at 2:00 AM and be shuffled off to a layover hotel in the middle of a storm.  It's one of the first tips that frequent business travellers share with the new folks.