Part "Één"...A first post

Working at the airport, you see a lot of things. You get to meet a lot of people, and you get to indirectly learn about psychology. You see extremes at the airport terminal. Ticket counter, gates, baggage, I've worked all three.

I work for a major airline, as you can see in my profile text. Just recently, I had my two-year anniversary with my airline. And so far, I'm satisfied with my job. Every day, I encounter different people, and have made some sort of effect in their lives, which I find satisfying, and enjoyable.

This first post I'll take to relate some of the things I have seen people do at the airport.

My first day on the job was okay. I was very nervous, and rightly so. I had no idea of what I had to do, and I was practically thrown to the wolves.

My second day on the job, I was yelled at for the first time as an airline employee. The customer's bag was a few pounds overweight. First thing I did was look to my supervisor who was next to me, who then said, "You need to take some weight out of that bag". They replied "That's how it came down". The supervisor said, "Well, at that weight, the bag will cost $50." He moved the weight, I took over, and he said "your #### airline sucks, m#########", and walked off. My supervisor saw what happened, and simply smiled and said, "Welcome to the airline industry, Gil!".

I have seen the strangest things in my life. The nearly 700 days I have been employed by my airline, I have seen many things that I will tell my grandchildren, and that you will now know.

Have you ever seen a woman, a mother, walking around in a polo shirt? I'm sure we all have. Have you seen one with all her shirt buttons undone? Or how about one with a breast hanging out (covered only by her bra)? One with her breast hanging out of the shirt neck, undone, and not even notice? I think not!

It is customary to show your ID to the agent tagging your bag. What happens when you do not have one?

Well, I had an interesting encounter with a man who claims he lives in a nudist colony not far from the airport (his shirt said so...ironic he had one on). This man was looking for his wallet after I asked him for his ID. Now mind you, this man is a good 80 years old. His daughter is in her 60s. After about a minute of the old man searching for his missing wallet, his daughter pulls out a magazine. She asked me if I could see his picture in a magazine. Before I could finish saying that I had to see a government-issued ID, she opens the magazine to show the same old man without so much as a thread of fabric on his body. They caught me off-guard. This made me the laughing stock of the ticket counter, and where even other employees of the same airline in other cities knew about my encounter of the naked kind. He ended up finding a wallet in a pocket in his cargo shorts (apparently, he didn't know how to use them).

I have also seen an old lady, standing across the hall from our ticket counter, drop her rolling bag, open it, and promptly change in front of everyone, and not even noticing that people are around her, staring in disbelief.

Another thing that I have noted is people's sense of entitlement. Especially when they pay a dirt-cheap fare. They pay for McDonalds and are expecting Cordon Bleu service. On top of that, the way people get so riled up about even the smallest things shows just how ridiculous people can become.

But that's just what I'll post for now. More funny things later!

Happy flying!