Dear Shawn,
Many years ago, I
used to watch a lot of TV. You miss a lot of TV when you’re a
flight attendant, unless you have a good programmable VCR. I was a
pro at programming a week’s worth of shows and making sure I had a
tape with enough room for all my favorites. The bad part was trying
to get caught up on eight or more hours of shows on my days off. I
quit television shows cold turkey.
Now I have a Roku
device, and when partnered with my Netflix, I can binge-watch like no
one’s business. I watched season three of The Walking Dead in two
nights! What I really love, is getting reacquainted with shows from
the seventies, and even sixties. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, Mary
Tyler Moore, Gilligan’s Island and currently, I’m on season five
of Dallas, one of my all-time favorites!
Today, while flying
from Bozeman to Chicago, a man asked me if I fly mostly domestic. I
let him know that I try to fly South America as much as possible, and
he remarked strongly to this- a combination of shock and awe. It
reminded me of the show Dallas, and the manner in which they dealt
with the passing of Jim Davis, the actor who portrayed the Ewing
patriarch, Jock. For nearly the entire season, they had him down in
South America prospecting for new oil reserves in the jungle. I
remember how exotic that sounded, in much the same way as it did in
the movie, Nine to Five, when the boss gets sent there to the delight
of the women who worked under him.
Maybe that’s why,
for so long, I had such a strong desire to visit South America. Not
because I was a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot, as
Frank Hart was in Nine to Five, but I love adventure. After 9/11, I
was furloughed from my job for six months, and unsure if I’d ever
be invited back, I took advantage of the fact that I had a big
savings account, and spent that time traveling with my flight passes.
It was basically my goal to visit all of the countries to which
Mother Airline traveled. One such destination was Santiago, Chile-
and that was my next trip planned when I heard they were recalling us
to come back to work. It became known to me as ‘the city that got
away.’
Now that I’m based
in Houston, I love going to South America often; Lima, Santiago,
Buenos Aires, Rio- all such great cities to visit with warm, inviting
people and vibrant culture. It’s a shame Jock Ewing didn’t just
get to go to these cities. Maybe his character would still be alive-
simply enjoying life and great Chilean wine. I love good Chilean
wind. Speaking of which...
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