Thursday, February 23, 2006

Safety First!


I saw the strangest thing today on my o-dark-thirty flight to Denver. I man 3 rows up from me put on a shiny bike-like helmet right before we took off and then removed it after we were airborne. I swear to you I was the only one on the plane who even took notice, Like everyone but me has seen that before, they just sat there. I on the other hand unbuckled my seat belt during takeoff and sat up to catch a glimpse. He was a normal looking businessman in dress slacks and a coat. He did not appear to be retarded, even with the shiny helmet on his head. I honestly think he was anticipating a horrendous crash during take-off and decided to come prepared. Guess you cant blame a guy for taking his personal safety into his own hands. I really didn't want to be the one to tell him that a helmet probably wont provide sufficient protection in a 300+ mph plane crash. People disintegrate during those events.

This brings me to a point. You can tell SO MUCh about a planes final destination by the people waiting in line for boarding. Mulletts, big johnson T-Shirts, fanny packs and blue jean shorts, more often than not, indicate a direct flight to the fine state of Florida. Namely Ft. Lauderdale or Daytona. Man-bags, smart glasses and well tailored black wool overcoats can indicate a stop in New York or Boston. Berkenstocks, wool socks, hemp backpacks (and evidentially silver helmets) mean your headed mile high to Denver.

Im now back at the airport waiting on my flight to Austin. There's not really one particular demographic here in the boarding area. Mostly ski-trippers on their way back home. I do see one hippie-hold-out guy in a "Keep Austin Weird" T-Shirt though. Im glad to see someone's single handedly keeping Austin tradition alive and well.

2 comments:

goblinbox said...

Keep Austin weird?

Kelicious said...

On my flight to dallas, was a man with a Alan Jackson mustach, white denim jeans, white starched shirt, tan boots, matching duster and a flet hat.

I knew I was headed home.