And I'm Off

I began waking up around three; had the clock set for four. Alyssa and I were out the door at 5:01 right on schedule. Holly and Andy both got up to say good-bye which was really nice since Saturday is the only sleep-in day. I’m sure they were both sound asleep again before we were out of the driveway, but it was nice.

There was only a little snow and the roads were good, so I was glad I chose not to worry about it. Alyssa knows right where to go and she dropped me off with a hug in front of Delta. Easy check in and my bag is going straight through to Düsseldorf – yea! But, the line through security was the longest I ever seen it, all the way to the beginning of the concourse. A man from Beaver Dam and I were talking when a frazzled lady asked us if this was the security line. When she saw that it was, she was more than a little distressed. Then out of the blue she said to me, “Well, at least you have a cute hairdo and don’t look all stressed like me!” All three of us had to laugh and I thanked her. I hope she made her connection. Beaver Dam and his parents Harry and Donna Shute knew my Uncle George’s dry goods store in Horicon. Mr. Shute worked at John Deere my uncle’s favorite tractor company, “ Nothing runs like a Deere!” I can still hear his booming voice when they’d visit and the Case name would come up. The younger Mr. Shute now from California remembered the polished large, round fancy grate in the middle of Schneider’s. He said there was a screen under it and old Mr. Schneider used to have coins in there. He said he even saw silver dollars. I guess that made an impression on a little kid. I remembered the x-ray machine we looked through to see our foot skeletons. We always got a new pair of shoes when we each had our time at Uncle George and Aunt Margaret’s. With six kids in our family new shoes were a great treat. Especially for me, since I was the kid that wore holes through the soles in two weeks and then had to stuff them with cardboard until they were outgrown. I’m still hard on shoes, but now I have more of them, and they rotate and so it takes longer to wear them out. And, yes, I need all those shoes.

We were a little late taking off because of all the de-icing, but we still made good time and I was headed to the trains at Hartsfield in Atlanta by 11:45. My seat mate Nancy (my new good friend from north of Sheboygan) had to make an 11:07 connection. She and at least half of the plane had to make connections, so the crew asked that those people be allowed to de-plane first. That was a small thing, but all the people leaving kept saying, “thank you, thank you,” as they hurried down the aisle.

Nancy is a retired teacher from the twin cities now living in a house she built on Lake Michigan ten miles north of Sheboygan in Cleveland. We really had a nice visit and the time just flew. We exchanged names and numbers and plan to get in touch when we both return from our trips.