Plane Conversations

You can tell almost immediately when you take your seat on the plane if the person next to you wants to talk or not. I'm a talker, but I can respect the wishes of someone who wants solitude, or as much as you can get as a passenger among 174 others.

Sometimes I prefer to just sit quietly and sometimes I'm ok with talking.

When we were flying home from LA there was a lady in the window seat and when we both witnessed  the lady with the baby ask if the passengers were bothered by her baby I turned to her and said, "I've never witnessed someone ask that before." And she very kindly replied. I instantly knew she would hold a conversation with me, should I pursue it, but I had a book to read, so I read for an hour.

Then I was bored and my husband was asleep, so I started a conversation and she responded willingly. I found out so many interesting factoids.

• She was 75 years old. (She looked in her 60s)
• She worked full time, to retire in three more years.
• At that time she would move to Santa Fe (from Denver) to pursue her interests of weaving and jewelry making.
• Her three children live in LA, but within the next three years will move to New Orleans, Rome and South Carolina.
• She was born and raised in Chicago and had lived in CO for 16 years.
• I had told her I was from IA and she tells me she used to live in Bettendorf for one year. (she hated it)
• She worked for the Dept of Immigration in Chicago and I asked her to tell me some stories. She told me once a woman once tried to bribe her to get her citizenship and that once she had a guy who came to apply who was wanted by the FBI. Somehow teaching 2nd and 3rd graders pales in comparison.

I was so impressed by her pluck and determination to stay young. She claims working kept her young, which may be true, but I also know a lot was her attitude. You can discover so much about people in these random conversations, which in turn can cause your own self-reflection.

That's why I like to talk on the plane.