Anyone travelling by air has their own horror stories, hysterical quips and even witnessing touching, heartfelt moments. My little travelogue today is about carry-on luggage and the selfish fools that just don't get it. Granted, airlines imposing increasing fees for checked baggage are a huge instigator, but these luggage laden lugheads have been on flights for decades.
The issues often begin at security checkpoints, but the intensity really gets interesting at the boarding gate. I recently witnessed a petite young female passenger instantly morph into a fierce shrew battling with the gate agent who was respectfully asking to check her bulging "carry-on" bag at the gate as it was too large to fit in the overhead bin of this completely full flight. Her once pretty, dark doe eyes grew three sizes and I swear I could see laser beams shooting from those now dark, maniacle sockets, as she immediately flew into a wild rant of "OH NO IT FITS IT ALWAYS FITS I AM TELLING YOU IT FITS!" Repeatedly. Over and over.
The gate agent remained calm and asked her to test the bag in question in the "If your bag fits here" metal boxes that was discreetly pushed to the side of the gate area. The young shrew stomped to "the box" and immediately began extruding shoes, boots and great bulky articles of clothing from the bag, stuffing them into her already giant shoulder tote. (Mind you, according to FAA regulations, that shoulder tote must fit under the seat in front of her.) After wedging the newly sized carry-on down into "the box", the agent had no choice but to allow the bag. I was allowed to board while she extracted the bag from "the box" and I lost sight of any further incident.
Now on board, and settled in my window seat at the rear of the plane, I observed countless other "bin space hogs" commiting further attacks on common decency inside the cabin. Continual reminders from the flight crew that this was a completely full flight and repeating the FAA guidelines about boarding procedures. . . "roller bags in the overhead bins first, smaller bags under the seat in front of you" etc bore no impact on these idiots.
Among the selfish acts were turning roller bags sideways, taking up space for TWO bags, cramming two or three various carry-on pieces into the overhead bins and laying carefully smoothing large overcoats out on the floor of the overhead bin (I suspect they were a valet in a previous life by the extreme care they took to prevent wrinkles). Those voracious valets were also completely oblivious that they were blocking the aisle and preventing 157 other passengers from moving to their seats. This continues for an endless 25 minutes.
Then . . .along comes the Shrew! Certain she had regained her sweet, petite demeanor since she was in possession of the bulging roller bag, I watched with hopeful anticipation. Alas - my hopes were in vain. She heaved that bag into an empty bin, turned it sideways, stuffed the now near-bursting tote along side, closed the bin door and plopped into her window seat. Thinking that no one would re-open the bin and try to add their own bag to the bin.
The flight attendant at the rear of the plane witnesseed this as well. Gave a light sigh, put a smile on her face and proceded forward to "assist" the Shrew. She carried out her mission with grace, finesse but determination. After re-opening the bin, explaining that the bag would fit more compactly turned length-wise with the roller wheels to the outside and kindly, but sternly, asking the Shrew to place the tote under the seat in front of her, she turned heel and left no opporunity or time for Shrew rebuttal.
As the attendant was assisting the next passenger, we exchanged quick smiles and I gave her a nod - job well done. She smiled again. We both secretly wished the Shrew a comfy flight with her little Shrew legs cramped against that seam-groaning tote at her feet.
The flight home was otherwise uneventful and my thoughts started forming for this post. Have we become so self absorbed that even in the small, contained spaces of a commercial jet, that we really have absolutely NO awareness that there are 200 other human beings around us?! Can we not just take a few seconds to think about how our own actions effect others around us?
Or have we all become shrew-thinkers that can never be tamed?
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