My First Plane Ride

We had to go to my grandpa's funeral up north. Mama had attended her mother's funeral five years before, but was in a huge hurry to get home, because her twin granddaughters had been born on the same day as her mother died. I missed my grandma's funeral because I was having babies. Five years later when my grandpa died, it was a given that we travel to Michigan for the funeral. Money was tight so we decided Grey Hound bus was the best way to travel to the funeral. Thirteen hours on a bus was not the greatest trip in this world. I was then expecting my baby girl and the trip was extra hard on me. We did the up there trip on the bus. My aunt after the funeral decided that it was too much for us to take the long bus ride back to Alabama. My Uncle Buddy offered to buy plane tickets for the returning trip. I needed to get back to work quicker, also. We made the five minute trip to the airport and that is when the fun started. Mama did not want to fly. She was terrified of the whole thought of it. Difficult was the least of what was to expire on this trip. Going through the security check was something she was not willing to do easily. She was holding on to her purse and was so determined not to do what my cousin, Alan and I wanted her to do that She would not place her purse on the belt for it to be scanned. In an airport that is something that is a given, but not for her. She was mental and had the papers to prove it. The security guards were in the dark as to who Mama was and did not care that she was not all there. All they knew is that this lady would not sit her purse down on the belt to be scanned. The normal reaction for security was to seize the woman that was causing problems. That is what they did, three of them grabbed her, this just made her that much crazier she was jerking away and Alan and I was begging please Mama just put your purse on the belt. Alan was pleading Aunt Jean all you have to do is let them see what's in your purse. After what seemed like hours she calmed down enough to place her purse on the x-ray belt thing. We finally made it on the plane seated, but not without her loudly groaning, uhgg constantly. She was not being quiet with her uhgg's either. In the air we were and uhgg was echoed by her over and over. At this time smoking was still aloud on planes. It was 1988 thank goodness because I think if she was flying today she would have smoked no matter what the rules were. She loved men always had, and the man that boarded in Nashville I am sure wished he had another seat. I was next to the window, she was in the middle and this poor man was on the end next to Mama. As soon as he was seated Mama laid her head on his shoulder. This was a perfect stranger, but she did not care, he was a man and he would comfort her rest of the trip. With this I began kicking her under the seat and whispering for her to get off of the man. Each time I touched her leg with my foot she yelled quit kicking me, why are you kicking me for, this echoed throughout the plane. I was so embarrassed that I just gave up and let her ride lying on the man's shoulder that she did not know. We made it home that was all that really mattered. I was used to all of my mama’s stuff at home, it was really different out in the real world. It at the time was almost mortifying; but now it is a wonderful and funny memory I have gathered along the way. My mother was really who she was and did not care what anyone thought. If children today would realize that loving their parents unconditionally is part of God’s plan maybe it would be a happier world.