Peanuts and Legacies
Then (1994) ...
Now...
When I was a kid, I'd sometimes fly with my dad on his routes around the country.
When I was a kid, I'd sometimes fly with my dad on his routes around the country.
During my college years, this was a particularly fun time, and my freshman year I spent many weekends flying all over the country with him, doing my homework in flight and helping out as a volunteer flight attendant. Things got to the point where I even had a uniform shirt and was accepted as one of the crew. It was a great time in my life. It was a great time for my dad and I to grow closer, and I enjoyed the fast pace in my first year away from home. It wasn't uncommon to fly to the Northeast and back to the west coast again in a single weekend.
To date, my kids haven't exactly shared in the fly-wherever-you-want lifestyle. A few weeks ago, however, when we went to see my parents in PDX, they got a taste of what it was like for me. It was a great time to pass on a bit of the Peanut Legacy to them.
On our return flight from PDX, I noticed that the flight attendant was readying her snack service and asked if she wanted help. At first she politely declined, but then I said something (don't recall what) and she picked up on my heritage with a "you've obviously done this before" statement. I smiled, told her that I'd grown up with it, and asked if it was OK if I had my kids help out. She was happy to oblige. When I went back and pulled the kids from their seats, they must have thought I was a little crazy. I gave them a basket of peanuts and crackers and told them to start passing out to the passengers. After a couple rows of "how do I do this" behavior, they caught the spirit and had fun. They wound up doing the entire plane's snack service! Amy got so into it that I
convinced her to even go help with garbage service, and a few minutes later she was moving down the aisle with a latex glove on one hand pronouncing "Garbage?" over and over. It was so cute. And she even got a $2 tip from one passenger. She was pretty proud of her self.Afterwards, I told them that I used to do the same thing with Grandpa and that there's
a picture on our wall at home (above) with me doing just that. They'd never noticed it before, but they have now.
It was a real treat to be able to share a bit of my history with my kids, and especially in a way that was unique and fun. It helped remind me of the great things I've been able to do in my life.
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