Airport (Capacity Pt. 2)
Some towns lose a restaurant or two then maybe some stores and then the movie theater is gone. Before you know it, the mall is gone. That’s how a town deteriorates. That’s how it goes down hill. But, that didn’t happen around here. In fact, I just saw Dr. Strange down at the Cineplex yesterday. I mean, he’s not my favorite hero or anything like that but I just needed to go somewhere. You know, spend some time at the movies like in that Delmore Schwartz story. I think it was In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.
Anyway, when it comes to movies, I’m not too into fantasy. I guess superfolks are fine but I like something a little more grounded. Well, at least grounded in reality. That is to say, I do like movies about airplanes – seeing as how we don’t have an airport anymore. I’ve never seen an airplane going overhead. Never been up to one up close, so to speak. Everything I know about planes is from magazines and movies. The airport shut down a long time ago back when we first reached capacity. But, every now and again I hear the old folks talking about the old days at the turn of the century back in like ’99 or 2000 when there were planes around here.
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I wonder what it was like to get away into the air and just go. The old folks said they’d been in a plane or two. They were up in the sky, in the clouds and eating peanuts, watching old movies like Trains, Planes and Automobiles with some dead actor. They said in the plane, you had to buckle up when the light came on and stay seated until the plane got into the air and then you could go to the bathroom but other than that, there really was’t any reason to get up. It’s not like the train where there are so many cars and so many people but you could drink on a flight and that sounds just great. I could use a drink right now.
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On an airplane, there are window seats and aisle seats. Which do you prefer? I mean, on a plane, do you want to the world below or do you want to have easy access to get out in case things go awry? If I was on a plane, I’d want to be near the window. What do all those other places look like? What are their capacities? What’s the maximum of the cities spread across the country? Are their buildings taller than ours? What kind of lights do they have? And, besides when you get tired you can put your head on the window and sleep. Sleep is important. Just think about it, you leave here and wake up elsewhere. It’s the dream come true.
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I wonder what the service was like up in the sky. I mean, I hate waiting for refills down here so what was it like up there. I mean, I know nowadays, you don’t always get a full can of Coke but back in the day, what was it like? Were the meals any good? Does food taste different that far up? Let’s really talk about this, like if I was going to have a city in the sky or an airship or something like that, what are the pros and cons of altitude?
I could google it but I’d love to hear the firsthand accounts. I guess I could talk to the old folks but who’d want to do that? Next thing you know they’ll start talking about cassettes and Nirvana and I’m just not into all that.
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I don’t know why the airport was the first thing to go when the capacity was hit but it was. Maybe there’s just not enough traffic to warrant one. This certainly isn’t a tourist trap. I guesses buses and trains are good enough for this place. And realistically, you can drive to a place with planes but it’s not the same not having your own airport. It’s almost like we’re not on the map. We’re not important. Next thing you know, the news’ll be talking about the weather and you’ll have to look for the next closest town to get an idea of how cold it is around here. All a town ever really wants is to be recognized, I think. I mean, I want to say where I live and have folks say, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of that place.” It feels good to be known. Your place is your place forever even if you get away. For me, I’ll always carry ‘the capacity’ with me no matter where I go. And what will folks bring here? What can visitors bring to us? I mean, if we even have enough room for visitors.
Where’s the furthest away you’ve been? Have you flown before? Did you go over seas? Tell me about it. I haven’t been too far. I can’t seem to save up enough money to get really far away and my folks never did like to travel. I mean, we did little trips, seen some stuff, but never so far away as to feel like we were anywhere really different from here.
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