Small World

Now, as we all know, 10 hours is a long time to fill so the right seatmate is crucial to maintaining sanity. Fortunately I had great seatmates, one of whom slept most of the way to Houston and the other who was from Aberdeen & had been allowed on the plane with his family, a plastic baggie with keys & IDs and his sense of humor intact. No pens, carry-on luggage or anything else that might have given him a dangerous advantage on the 10 hour flight. As he saw every other person enter the plane with a reasonable amount of their worldly possessions--and booze from the duty free shop--he laughed & said 'my wife is going to kill me, we're like refugees from Scotland with our little plastic bags!'

We continued our conversation and soon discovered that both of our fathers were in the British Army in Egypt in the mid-1950s. He gave me his father's info and I promised to check with my dad when I got back to Texas. I spoke with my father that evening and he not only remembered this other guy, but actually found a photo he was in. I talked my dad through the scanning process and am now awaiting the CD with the photo so I can email it to my seatmate and reconnect the two Army buddies...50 years and 1000s of miles later.

rg