One of the outcomes of traveling for me is meeting the interesting characters along the way. I remember when I was in Australia in 1994, I was traveling by train from Perth to Melbourne and had a 6 hour stop over in Adelaide. Well, I hunkered down with my deck of cards and my headphones and played a ton of solitaire. As I was between games, a woman sitting next to me struck up a conversation. Well, before I knew how we got there, she says that she's traveling to Melbourne to crash her ex-husband's wedding. Here's where it gets tricky; her ex-husband was engaged to her mother.
I find people fascinating. I always seem to hear confessions from people's lives; "I feel guilty for not spending much time with my son," said one frequent traveler. Other's tell me of their engagements, philosophies on life, working with the Bush administration to prove that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, heading to Chicago to play in a professional soccer game for the first time, visiting with family, etc. One guy gave me 3 novels and his card.
You may be wondering if I am one of those annoying people on flights who talks incessantly, but I'm not. I promise. Most times I'm trying to mind my own business, bury my head in a book, or listen to music, and these folks just find a way to strike up the conversation. And because I'm fascinated, it's like a moth to a flame.
I noticed an increase of these conversations especially after 9/11. I think there are more nervous people flying, and figure if they are going down, they better know their seat-mates, just in case. So, who are your "seat-mates?"
2 comments:
I imagine that you'd be fairly easy to talk to. If I was sitting in the middle seat on an airplane, in between you and someone else, I'd probably choose to strike up a conversation with you (unless, of course, the someone else was Patrick Dempsey or TR Knight; at that point, you'd be free to read your book in peace).
I always run into the same situation with people being chatty with me on planes. I always thought it was the South Dakota in me...maybe it has more to do with the South than the Dakota - that would explain the phenomenon for both of us.
Post a Comment