1) After very little sleep, I got up at 5:48 AM and was out the door three hours later to airport. It felt virtuous to empty a dishwasher full of clean dishes before leaving on a trip.
2) On the Ligne d’Orange, first I noticed a woman traveling with an exceedingly large hat in her lap that seemed to be made of big loops of raffia ribbon. It’s as if the cast of The Music Man had all been on vacation in the Caribbean before the curtain went up on act one. Tiny paper umbrellas were studded over it, too. I can only imagine what it was for.
2) Later a young man boarded the train and sat with his knees folded up to his chin and his feet on the seat next to him. Not very polite — but then I remembered how in my 20s I used to sit with my feet up on the Green Line all the time, colonizing three seats in that L configuration on the old trains. So I am just a big old hypocrite, even though I wouldn’t sit that way now. Young men will always need to be educated.
3) Everything went so smoothly at the airport, and then it really didn’t matter, because my first flight was delayed an hour. I passed the time over a second breakfast reading William J. Mann’s biography of Katharine Hepburn.
3a) The waitress thanked me for tipping 25% and I said “Well, you’ve been so nice . . . and this coffee is so strong that if I didn’t, it would probably beat me up!” We had a good laugh.
4) Why I chose to tempt fate by traveling in full canonicals — channeling Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile in my white linen suit with a pink shirt and bow tie — who can say. But I didn’t even get to board the plane before I ended up with a spot on one pant leg.
4a) That hardly mattered, because the motherly flight attendants on both flights absolutely adored me. It’s true, people — when you dress up, it makes a difference!
4b) Disembarking in DFW, I passed a man who said “He’s dressed up like one o’ them aristocrats.” I just said “Thank you” at the time, but later I wondered if he had a guillotine in his roller bag.
5) To my delight, my DFW arrival gate was only a few gates away from my beloved Pappadeaux, where I had not been since . . . oh, who knows, at least 2023 and probably longer. Gumbo, shrimp étouffée, key lime pie, and a mild bourbon and soda made my layover paradise. Sadly Pappadeaux no longer offers internet to its diners, and the DFW internet — how shall I say this? — proceeded at a stately pace.
6) Taking the tram to my departure gate, I remembered flying through this airport 40 years ago and having to run from the far end of Terminal A to the far end of Terminal B (and making my connection — couldn’t do that now!) Now there are five or six terminals and a tram. It’s pretty amazing.
6a) The heat of the day made itself felt in that tram. Texas is oppressive.
7) Being early to my gate made no difference, as my second flight was delayed by an hour and a half.
8) On board, the lady sitting in my row (with an empty seat between us — score!) saw my Hepburn book, which launched a brief chat. In the 1980s she was working for some high-end china/crystal store in New York (not Tiffany) when Hepburn came in. “She’s a shoplifter,” her boss told her. “Shadow her.” So for half an hour this woman followed Katharine Hepburn around the store, pretending to clean and polish things to keep from being too obvious. And then wouldn’t you know it, Kate picked out something, paid for it, and left. “Well,” I said, “at least you got a great story out of it! How many people can say they shadowed Katharine Hepburn as a suspected shoplifter?”
8a) Other passengers just had me shaking my head WTF. A woman sitting across the aisle from me chose to get up just as soon as we started to back away from the gate. And then closer to takeoff (!), a teenage girl ambled — ambled! — forward and ended up switching her seat to sit in the front of the cabin. Honestly, people!
9) The day had been very long at this point, and even Hepburn’s career couldn’t keep me engaged. I thought the flight would never end; I had forgotten we jumped two time zones on this leg instead of one. But the flight attendant saw my suit and said “Aren’t you nice to dress up for me today!”
10) The evening heat of Palm Springs made itself felt as soon as I got off the plane, but not unpleasantly. I was just so glad to be off the plane! And then my friends were there past security to greet me with smiles and hugs and many words of welcome.
11) We were back at their house in less than 15 minutes (whereas it had taken me over an hour to get to Logan from my house), where I proceeded to launch the cocktail hour by jumping fully clad into the pool. After 13 hours of travel, it was a needed expression of freedom!