Odds of brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright constructing, then flying, the world’s first powered aircraft in 1903–and Southwest Airlines’ founding what would become one of the world’s leading airlines 64 years later–were about the same.
Most figured the odds to be slim and none.
And most were wrong….
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While the Wrights’ contraption was aloft for only 59 seconds with a flight measuring just 852 feet, it was a beginning, as was SWA’s start-up with leased aircraft, stiff competition, borrowed money and unfettered dreams.
Perhaps the chief of dreamers was SWA co-founder Herb Kelleher, as was eventual SWA President Colleen Barrett, first woman president of a major airline. Both pioneers–gone, but by no means forgotten–came to mind recently on the front and back ends of my first major airline flight in five years. Advancing years (think numbers on a piano keyboard), health issues and a limited speaking schedule have kept me grounded, but the recent Dallas-to-Tampa, FL, flight on the “airline that LUV built” lingers on my memory ladder’s top rung.
A friend claims that heaven has a glass bottom. I’ll join right in, hopeful that Herb and Colleen flashed big smiles….
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For starters, I’d never negotiated Love Field’s great new parking lot. While securing the car, I made a mental check of items I’d lug to the terminal. Yep, keys, wallet, two rolling pieces of luggage, a briefcase, cane and my dratted CPAP machine weighted me down.
I re-defined trudging. Winded and eager to find a chair upon reaching the terminal, I saw a skycap literally running toward me, offering a wheelchair with its tires still smoking.
Rarely has any offer been so readily accepted. Michael wheeled me to check-in, then to the security gate, where pockets were emptied and explanations offered for wires and batteries implanted for heart back-ups….
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But wait! Where was my phone? “Probably left in the car,” Michael said. “Let’s go back.” He then wheeled me for several hundred yards back to my car, grabbed my phone from the front seat, shot a photo of my parking space and pushed the wheelchair to my boarding gate. (To be sure, Michael earned a generous tip.) Thirty minutes had passed, but early boarding assured my choice of any row of seats. Remember, it was Saturday night, and most people were already where they were going.
In Tampa, I addressed a church senior adult luncheon, sold a few books and was hosted by two couples whose paths I hadn’t crossed for 60 and 30 years, respectively. Mike and Jeanie Compton were Sul Ross students during my faculty tenure there in the 1960s. Mike was in my PR class, and I awarded Steve Biles his baccalaureate degree at Howard Payne University….
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I was treated royally by the Comptons–as well as by Steve and his wife, Cricket–and his parents, Tom and Nanel Biles, HPU classmates more than 65 years ago.
After five days, I boarded an early-morning SWA flight, this one packed. I was “wheelchaired” to the gate for early boarding, sitting near a college-age woman named Katie.
We talked about columns/writing/reporting, etc., and she seemed interested.
I told her I’d like to autograph a book, thinking I’d fish one out of my briefcase placed on the plane’s only unoccupied center seat. Alas, no book was found, but I assured her that I’d find one at baggage claim. She said she might be delayed. At no time during our two-hour visit did she mention that she had leg protheses….
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A flight attendant–call him Gil–overheard our conversation, mentioning that he has written the first chapter of his book. He shared it with me; I quickly recognized his considerable talent. He, too, would get a book.
After luggage was gathered, Gil–completing his trip–insisted on pushing the wheelchair to my car. I asked him how many times he’d wheeled passengers from plane seats to car seats. “Counting today, once,” he smiled.
Angels abound; sometimes they’re easily spotted….
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Dr. Newbury, longtime university president, continues to speak and write. The Idle American, begun in 2003, appears weekly in newspapers throughout Texas. Contact: 817-447-3872. Email: [email protected]. Audio version at www.speakerdoc.com.