The "Friendly" Skies

OK – so you’ve all read about the guy at the airport in San Diego who just refused the body scan and the invasive pat down by the TSA. I won’t go into whether or not that is that wrong or right – or just plain scary – but having just read about this in the news, and having just endured this myself just two weeks ago, I was sent back in my mind to the simpler days of visiting the airport when I grew up.

We – like most every family – had dreams of going to Hawaii. Growing up in Seattle, we kind of felt we were close enough that it was more of a reality, so we had a change jar that we all had to contribute to when a variety of family rules weren’t followed or chores not done. While this was exciting and fairly inspiring, it was never going to get us plane fare to the Hawaiian Islands.

In ’75, my folks bought a timeshare on Kauai (back when they were a good deal) and we began many years of happy Hawaiian travels, and this brings me to the subject of this blog post – visiting airports when I was a kid.

There was no such thing as airport security back then. I mean – I’m sure there was – they probably scanned the checked baggage but there was nothing that stopped us from going right out to the gate. We had a tradition that every time before a flight the whole family would go out to breakfast at a Sambo’s or a Denny’s. The whole family – Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, etc. – would all go out to celebrate the fact that someone was getting to go to Hawaii. From there we would all go to the airport and see the lucky ones off. This means that we all went to the gate and sat with them until they boarded the plane and then we watched the plane take off. What a great exciting time that was – even if you weren’t the ones going. And conversely, a bunch of the family members would be there at the gate in Seattle to meet them when they came back. It was awesome to be the ones coming up the ramp from the plane and be greeted by family and friends.

It’s all so different today – the limited access for anyone not flying; the incredible level of security that we’re all subjected to; the limited service on the flights; the limited amount of luggage we can take… I could go on, but I won’t. I’m not complaining, just saying that it was a LOT funner back then!

Halloween, Part 7 - The FINAL Chapter

So – there we were – the elevator doors were closing and we were almost free. But – we could hear all the cop cars skidding to a stop just a few yards away. We could see all the flashing lights and hear all the sirens and the radios. Dang! – Those security guards had it going on!

And this is where the security guar… uh… we realized by now that they were indeed full-fledged cops – made a move right out of the movies. Just as the elevator doors were about to clamp shut, a hand slipped between the doors and pulled them open. Now here’s the situation. One cop vs. 7 very tall, very scary, football-like, spike encrusted gloved and helmeted, white masked, red-glowing-eyed guys. We are TOTALLY scared and freaked out, but he can’t see that. I’ll never forget how he slowly moved his hand to his piece – didn’t pull it – but he had it there in case.

He backed up a little bit and very deliberately told us to “exit the elevator, slowly”. Within a couple of seconds, the place was literally swarming with cops and we were basically lined up against the wall being searched. “But, we we’re just having fun!” …we kept saying. “It’s just a joke”, “We just wanted to have some fun…”

They were NOT amused. In what seemed like only a couple of minutes we were all sitting down and listening the cops telling us how much trouble we were in. They had us strip off our skates, gloves, masks and helmets. We didn’t think that things could get much worse, when someone who was obviously in charge appeared on the scene. It turned out that the Chief of Police for the Port of Seattle Police was called out of bed at 2:00 am and he was NOT happy. He proceeded to pace back and forth before us letting us know that he could have us thrown in jail right now. That there were a dozen different offenses he could charge us for.
I have never heard such a combination of language and anger… it didn’t help that we kept talking about “…just having fun”. We soon stopped saying anything and started to just apologize. It was a very long night.

We ended up getting cited for disorderly conduct. We had to walk away from the airport (they confiscated our gear), and then we finally got in touch with our van driver who came and picked us up. We ended up having to get a public defender, going to court and being sentenced to 20 hours of community service work. Of course it could have been a lot worse, but the whole thing was a real eye-opener and kind of surreal.

The fun and ironic ending to this was that we ended up having to wash and wax the very police cars that chased us in the parking garage. It was kind of fun to have the secretaries whispering and excitedly chatting when we showed up the first day. Our little escapade ended up being quite the story around the police office for quite awhile.

So there you have it. Probably the hardest part was telling my folks because I had always been a good kid. Fortunately, they were pretty understanding overall. It’s one of those things that I am actually glad I did. We didn’t cause any harm, hurt anyone or destroy any property. Of course, it’s been a great story to be able to tell over the years, we did have fun through it all, and it was fun to be a part of something bigger than myself.

Thanks for sticking with me on this, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this story. I’ve had a great time reliving and retelling it, and actually writing down the memories. Have a fun, safe and legal Halloween!

Halloween, Part 6

Having completed our photography session on the parking garage roof, and having fully psyched ourselves up, we piled in the van and headed for the elevators on the concourse level floor. Our friend dropped us off and we set off across the bridge to the main concourse.

Everything started out according to plan. We rode the escalators up to the main level and quietly skated along the end of the check-in counters in route to the aisles behind. I do recall that as we glanced at the agents at the ticket counters (it was 2am, there weren’t many of them) there were looks of surprise, concern, etc. I believe that we saw a few of them reaching for phones to alert the “security guards”. But c’mon, it WAS Halloween!

We made our way to the back aisle, assumed the “V” formation and skated the entire length of the main concourse. I don’t recall seeing anyone in particular, but what I DO recall was that we were in skater’s heaven – it was all we had imagined it would be and more. Wide, smooth terrazzo aisles, we moved in near silence, save the uniformed whooshing of our skates and the “this is AWEsome!” loud whispers now and then.

We reached the other end of the aisle and turned to head back to the escalators to exit the building back to the parking garage and be on our way…mission accomplished. What happened next happened very quickly. As we entered the check-in area, there was a “security guard” kind of jogging towards us from the counter area. He called out something to the effect of “Hold-on there, guys” and we all stopped and froze in our tracks. We didn’t want trouble; we had planned for this; we were just having fun. We’d explain ourselves, have a laugh or two about the whole thing and be on our way.

But as the guy got closer, one of us – I don’t know who – shouted “Let’s go!” and without a moment’s hesitation (I think there was a BIT of adrenalin – and some alcohol for some – involved) we all took off. We burst through the glass doors and out onto the road. As we looked back, we could see him using his radio calling for “back-up”. What? Was he going to rouse the other “guards” from their midnight cat-naps to come help him bawl us out? We weren’t going to stick around to find out… we were making for the van in the garage so we could get out of there!

As we headed down the ramps and doubled back toward the garage, it became obvious to us that we had caused a little more of a ruckus than we had intended. We got in the garage and realized that we had to skate the entire length of it to the elevator banks to make our getaway. All of the sudden, we had a very long ways to go and we were skating as fast as we could, as hard as we could, and realizing that we *may* have underestimated the impact of our actions. And then there were cop cars entering the garage behind us… CHASING us… with LIGHTS and SIRENS! And there were a LOT of them.

While this was extremely scary and we knew that we were in trouble, our only thought was to get to the elevators, then to the van, and then get out of there… as FAST as we could. We got to the elevators, pushed the button and waited. (Insert here a mental image of 7 VERY scared guys waiting *patiently* for an elevator in a lobby area while what seems to be the entire City of Seattle’s police force is very quickly ascending on them. Sirens are screaming, radios are crackling, and tires are screeching… do you hear the muzak in the background?). An elevator finally arrived and we all jumped inside. “Push the button! We made it! We made it!” That’s when one of Seattle’s finest made a great move and…

Wow… this has gotten really long. I PROMISE that I’ll finish it tomorrow.

Halloween, Part 5

My awesome friend found his pictures! Well – he found the negatives – and he was nice enough to get them developed, scanned them and then emailed them to me. I do not remember that we took all these pictures! This helped me to remember that in the course of the evening, we went a large open space in the middle of the University of Washington called Red Square.

Take a look! (Click to enlarge)

A ‘70’s-ish layout if ever I’ve seen one.

Practicing our “V” formation skating.

The effect would have been better without the flash. I’m number 2, second from the right. Remember – I’m topping out at 6’-5” – so we’re all pretty intimidating.

Oooooh! Scary!

Here we are in a group pic just before we got ready to assault the airport

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Geared up, faces and lights on, ready to go! On the roof of the parking garage at Sea-Tac!

Well - now that you know what we looked like, I bet you're ready to hear the whole story. Tune in tomorrow to read what happened just a few minutes after this shot was taken