“ I enjoy, occasionally, a day with my memories — these paintings hanging on the walls of my mind.”
The morning is partly sunny. It is a still morning, not even the hanging leaves are moving. It will again be in the 50’s during the day and the 40’s at night. Winter has yet to hold sway.
Henry is driving me to distraction. He goes out the dog door but still won’t come back inside through the door. He stands with his face peering through the door, and he cries. He even bangs the door a few times with his nose. I try to stand my ground and not open the door for him, but I don’t always succeed. I try to entice him by showing him treats, but that doesn’t usually work. My, “Come on, Henry,” doesn’t work either. I don’t know what happened to make him nervous coming inside. Henry does have several phobias.
Today is a Ghana day. I was looking through the pictures last night and was flooded with memories, small memories, mostly insignificant memories which I somehow remember.
I remember the flight with a stop in Madrid for refueling and a new crew. We got off the plane for a short time until we were quickly herded back to the plane. We mooed. When I got back on the plane, my seatbelt was stuck. I never did buckle my seatbelt. The new stewardess asked us if we wanted breakfast or more drinks. We opted for the drinks. Before we landed, a stewardess went up the aisle giving us the rest of the nips from the cart. I saved mine for the longest time. I remember in the terminal watching the crew buy leather and beaded goods at the stalls in the airport. Pan Am flew the Ghana route, but we had flown in a TWA charter so the crew was in Africa for the first time. I remember the welcome and toasts with warm Fanta, orange Fanta. I fell asleep on the bus ride to Winneba, our first training site. That first night, Peace Corps gave us a welcome party.
In Winneba I saw my first palm tree, rows of palm trees. I remember we all went to greet the chief of Winneba. It was customary. I wondered what the Ghanaians thought watching so many white people, well over 100, walking down the street to the chief’s house. We were an odd sort of parade.
Training lasted nearly three months, and those first two weeks were the hardest. They are front and center in my memory drawer of that summer. I will never forget.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
November 18, 2024 at 5:48 pm
Hi Kat,
This morning we had a quick line of thunderstorms move quickly through the area, by noon the sky was clear and the high is a comfortable 73°.
Whenever a politician, from either party talks about the wonders of deregulation, you want to watch your posterior because you are going to not enjoy the results. In 1979, President Carter signed the, “Airline Deregulation Act”, into law. It wrecked havoc on airline employees across the country. The idea was to lower airfares. It did that by allowing anyone who could scrape together a few bucks to lease some aircraft to go into the airline business. The names of failed airlines is way too long for this post. A guy named Frank Lorenzo got a hold of Continental Airlines and fired all the union employees. He then hired scab pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics. He also killed Eastern Airlines by transferring all of their assets to the nonunion Continental. Lorenzo made a fortune, but I’m surprised no one has taken a pot shot at him.
The two largest airlines that went bankrupt as a result of the deregulation were Pan Am and TWA. Both were our international flag carriers. The remnants of Pan Am went to Delta, and the remnants of TWA went to American Airlines. All the former Pan Am and TWA employees went to the bottom of both companies’ seniority lists. The executives spent the employees retirement money trying to keep the airlines afloat.
Some of my colleagues are still working because all of their airline retirement went away in bankruptcy.
November 19, 2024 at 12:00 am
Hi Bob,
We seem to be in a heat system, at least for a day or two. Tomorrow will get to the 60’s. A cold front is on its way.
When I was a teacher, I went to Europe just about every summer. I traveled on PanAm. It was, when I was first in Ghana, the only US airline which did the Africa route. On my trip home I sat next to a guy who had boarded the plane in East Africa. He had 10 more hours to go from Ghana to New York. His flight totaled 20 hours.
On my first trip back, I flew first class on United to Accra. It was the best ride with excellent food and seats which became comfy flat beds. On my next trip I booked United, but before I left, it dropped the route, and I had to fly Delta. Their first class was inferior to United’s. The seats didn’t flatten to beds, and the food was just okay. On my third trip I also had to fly Delta, but it was a better flight. They had learned in the three years since they first had the route.
I haven’t flown in a while. I’m hoping to get back to Ghana one more time.