Airports seem to be very interesting places. There is confusion, panic, fear, and all types of emotion. (Vic leaving), and there is sadness of friends leaving, and the joy of seeing new friends or family members for the first time.
The best time to see such raw emotion is at the doors outside of customs at the Chicago O'Hara international airports. ( Terminal 5). Its real neat that they have outgoing international and incoming international. They must separate the good emotion from the bad. I observed so much raw emotion and I didn't need a interpreter and believe me, Vic and I were in the minority.
An Italian man came through the door and lined up to do three kisses per member(on the cheek). I think there were 12-15 people, so that was like 45 kisses in less than 2 minutes.
A lot of Asians came through the door, and Vic said why so many. I mentioned that since they have all our money, its nice that they come back to spend it in our country. (ha!)
There was a German man named Martin that had a fan club of young girls running around chanting and yelling in German to welcome him to America.
There was a Hispanic family waiting for a solider to return, and some young Hispanic children traveling meeting their family.
Vic left me sitting as I was updating pictures to Face book. So after a while she didn't come back. You all know if you haven't meet Vic that she could talk and make friends with a tree. There was a family that was waiting at the gate "B" and Vic started talking.
A family had found a long lost "son, brother". The Victory day (WW 2)was a sad day for a mother. She had to give up her infant son and could never locate him. He (the son) had been looking for the family for 30 years. Some how they connected via email, and he was on his way for a visit from Denmark.
The mother was now 81 and the son was 65. His brothers and sister were at the airport with grandchildren and all. Vic became friends instantly, and when the Son came in she cried. I think she wanted to go with the family and have dinner. (Vic wake up, we have Shelby to get!)
Emotion aside, Vic is compassionate and I'm not. Funny thinking an airport is like a Hospital also, people are coming and going and emotion is everywhere. When Vic is porting, expect some emotion, and something new for the blog. By the way, I have many airport stories with Vic I should write about... More to come.
Tommy
