I was speaking with a friend tonight who has a daughter in college and she's taking the train (Amtrak) for a 3 hour ride home for Thanksgiving. I told her about how when I was in college, albeit my last couple years, with no car and needing to get home for the holidays I'd go to the "Ride Share Board" located in the student union building. If you had a car and needed passengers for gasoline money you'd fill out a blue card indicating how many spots you had, the days and times you'd be driving and your contact info. And if you had no car but needed a ride you'd fill out an orange postcard in place it in its designated, map-divided section. If you'd see a card with a solution for you, you'd jot down the person's name and number and call. I think I'd pay like $10 toward gas money.
One time I needed a ride home for Thanksgiving (5 hours) and I got a ride with a nice boy and the kicker is that about halfway through the trip he needed to stop and have a sit-down dinner with his aunt and uncle (he told me in advance). So we pretended we knew each other and I had a home cooked meal with total (and kind) strangers. I am sure he was very happy that I was normal (and vice versa).
But mostly I would arrange rides via the ride share board to visit a boyfriend who lived about 6 hours away. One trip was in a 4-seater plane. A twenty year old kept his dad's plane nearby and I actually got in it and flew with a couple other 20-year olds to an airport in Miami. And then back again on a Sunday.
During our conversation tonight my friend said she used the ride share board too from her college days in New York and had asked her daughter if there was such a thing at her college. Her daughter had not heard of this and when it was explained, her daughter said "You want me to get in the car with a stranger and ride three hours home?" Well, I guess not, said my friend.
It is a different world and I am not yet a parent of a college student. But I do have to shake my head and think about how that is how we found roommates--an ad in the school newspaper, and that is how many of us got rides home with other students like us. Today, kids will post their photos (and have you seen the photos of 13 year old girls on Facebook with their groceries all practically completely showing) and talk smack online but a face to face meeting with a peer who's a stranger is unfathomable. Hopefully when ours get to college age, we will find a place in the middle that works.
In the meantime tomorrow I head to the busiest airport in the country on one of the busiest days of travel to join the family who is already in Florida (and we'll all drive back). I hear the North terminal does not have the scanners and if I find myself being asked to get into one I'll ask for the pat down and ask if I can tape it or at least get the name of the agent. If I don't arrive to my destination I told Hubs to look for me the nightly news.
Actually I have an idea that would work well for someone like me who is against the body scanners. I say for those who opt out, we could do so if we had a prescription drug provided for this purpose..you'd take it and get knocked out so you couldn't possibly even move during the flight. We opt-outers wouldn't endanger anybody, and as a bonus I wouldn't have my usual plane-flying worries. Maybe I'd even arrive rested.
However you travel this year to be with the ones you love, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.
6 comments:
I am so in need of being an opt-outer. Does that mean the flight attendants will watch my kids?
The terrorists have won. I mean seriously. They have.
I hope you have an uneventful trip and a gentle pat-downer with a nice touch.
And a great Thanksgiving.
My grandparents tell stories of hitch hiking around the sierra nevadas between hiking expeditions.... a different world.
Glad you survived your trip. I know how draining it is, planning and packing and the whole affair. I feel a bit guilty that I am secretly happy I live so far away that I have an excuse not to go. I actually tallied up the number of trips I have taken back east against the number of times anyone has ever come to see us and that was my tipping point. I've been hauling kids back to see my family for 16 years and I'm just not motivated to go anymore. I'm going through a strange detachment thing since my Dad died and my sister divorced and our family does not feel like a family anymore. I wish I felt worse about how I feel, but I don't. My mom is invited here anytime, but she hasn't been in almost a decade. The planes go both ways and the only vacation I've had in ten years with my kids somewhere fun that wasn't back to see my family involved a hurricane. So I'm standing firm that the next time I endure the hassle of an airport, I'm going to be going somewhere I want to go, somewhere that does not reek of chicken farms and my past. So, I am selfish and cold, but it is a necessity to stay sane right now.
I used the ride share board in college too, and have chosen roomates off a bulletin board, and think it's interesting how these things have changed. And I'm as shocked as you about the photos teens post on facebook - oh my! I'm hoping to find a nice balance with my kids, and wish us both luck!
Welcome back. I'm still unpacking and doing laundry from our little trip, my least favorite part.
I was totally waiting for a "When Harry Met Sally" story!
Glad you're back.
P.S. I'm with Ms. Moon re terrorists and the TSAorists.
"13 year old girls on Facebook with their groceries all practically completely showing"
snort
And your seriously got on a 4-seater airplane?!
Damn, that boyfriend must have known what to do with your groceries.
(sorry Hubs :-)
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