Superintendent’s Chat

Richard McClements, Shonto Preparatory School

This past summer, I wrote about my experiences at the Syracuse airport. Many of you have told me that you enjoyed that Chat. I included it at the end of this one in the event you missed it.

I went home to New York State to visit my mother and children for Thanksgiving. My flight was out of the Phoenix airport, so I left work and drove during the day to get to Phoenix the night before my morning flight. That night, I went to dinner at a place on Van Buren Street called The Big Apple. What a delightful experience it was. As I got to the door, a Native American man and his wife entered just ahead of me. I was surprised to find the restaurant filled with many other Native Americans. The theme inside was “Cowboys and Indians.” As I sat at my table awaiting the menu, I looked up to find pictures of what I am reasonably certain was the 1870’s era. One was a Native American, I assumed was a Sioux or Cheyenne, who had long hair and was beautifully dressed in animal skins. The second picture was a man in his 60’s who was dressed in military uniform. I would guess it was from the Civil War. The third was a gentleman in a suit. I must have looked at those pictures 20 times. All around the restaurant were pictures from the old west. My waitress arrived for my order. She had to be in her early 70’s, was wearing jeans, a purple blouse, a purple scarf around her neck, a cowboy hat, and around her waist was a gun belt with what was probably a toy gun in the holster. She was delightful. As we talked, she told me that she had been a waitress there for the past 31 years and that it would have been even longer except that she went to Mississippi for five years and returned. She left Oklahoma in the 1930’s to come with her parents to Arizona. In case you didn’t know, many people left OK during the 30’s due to horrible weather which turned the state into a dustbowl, making growing crops there during that period almost impossible. After I ordered, I got up and took my time looking at all the pictures and smiling, since I have always loved history. I left that restaurant feeling blessed, that I had been given an experience that money just can’t buy. I would highly recommend it for food and atmosphere.

Well, my flight took off the next morning right on schedule, but I knew I had a stopover in Chicago, and the airport there is notorious for delays. That past summer was just horrendous and led to my experiences at the Syracuse Airport that I wrote about. As I was arriving in Chicago, the rain came down in torrents, and I knew…

My flight to Syracuse was supposed to leave at 2:30 P.M., but as I got to my gate, I saw that there was a one-hour delay. A few minutes later, it changed to 4:15. Then it became 4:45. Now I knew I was in for it. The storm was continuing and most flights were not permitted to take off or land. About 6 P.M. they announced that the flight to Syracuse had been cancelled and to line up before the counter to be rebooked for the next day.

I got in line (not too happy I might add) and waited my turn. In front of me was a business man and a woman who were also going to Syracuse. We started talking and had a friendly conversation. He was saying that he was thinking of reserving a rental car and driving the 12 hour trip to Syracuse and did the two of us want to join him. I jokingly said that I use to drive it every year when I was in the Navy, and that I might consider it if everyone agreed to drive 100 miles an hour to shorten the trip. Neither of them said they would, so I dropped that option. As we continued to chat, the counter showed that a flight would be leaving to go to Buffalo at 6:30, which is about 120 miles from Syracuse. The guy said he would get a rental car there and drive to our destination. The three of us went up and talked with another airline stewardess to see if we could be put on stand-by for that flight. A stand-by means that you can get on the plane if it is not filled with passengers. At 6:30, they called our names and said we could board the plane to Buffalo. We were happy.

We got into our seats. The plane did not leave. Time went by, and the pilot kept announcing that we were being delayed for a half hour. Then it became 7:30. I fell asleep. I woke up about 8:30, and the plane still hadn’t taken off. The pilot said that we were being cleared to taxi down the roadway but a few planes were ahead of us. Finally……… at 9:30 P.M., we took off.

We got into Buffalo about 11:30 EST and rented a car with the guy’s business credit card. I knew that the following awaited me: (1) My luggage would not be at the Syracuse airport when I arrived, because the flight had been cancelled, and it would not arrive until the next flight to Syracuse in the morning. (2) My rental car that I had reserved to drive to my mother’s house would not be available, because the rental car business would not be open in the middle of the night. (3) I would have to sleep at the Syracuse Airport, as I done the previous summer when I arrived at 2:30 in the morning. But I was still happy. I had gotten out of Chicago, and my airplane hadn’t crashed. I fell asleep and remained so all the way to Syracuse.

When we arrived in Syracuse, the guy told me that I was to spend the night with him at his daughter’s home. The next morning, he drove me to the Syracuse Airport so I could get my rental car and collect my luggage. As we arrived, I said to him, “I just can’t find the words to thank you for all you have done.” He replied, “You just did.”

I went into the airport thinking I would have to wait hours for my luggage to arrive. I was astonished to find it was already there as the plane from Chicago had arrived at 4:30 that morning.

My Thanksgiving was memorable because of the kindness of that man and his daughter. They had taken a complete stranger (me) and went out of their way to help. This makes the past two visits home quite exciting. Who knows what will happen when I go East this spring?

Superintendent’s Chat

Richard McClements, Shonto Preparatory School

This chat discusses stepping back and looking at life from a bird’s perspective. How does a bird learn to avoid oncoming cars? Their timing is just about perfect. They will be doing what birds do and fly out of the way just in time. Birds are incredibly interesting if you just take the time to watch them and their mannerisms.

On the 4^th of July weekend, I flew home to visit my mother and daughters. There were many delays, and I got into the Syracuse airport at 2:30 A.M. I had planned to catch a rental car, but of course at that time of night, the rental car booth was closed. I had no choice but to sleep in the airport. I had a laptop computer and two suitcases to deal with. I found a comfortable couch near the luggage pickup. I put that computer beneath my head as a pillow to make sure no one took it. I draped my hand over the two suitcases so I would feel it if a thief was about to snatch them. I slept on my side with my wallet beneath me. I was all set. I wondered if anyone who spotted me thought I was a “homeless bum” who had caught a convenient place to sleep. I smiled.

The first things I had to deal with were the bright lights and the various workers who were cleaning the airport. Soon I learned to block out their noise. Next, I started to listen to the background music playing over the loud speakers. The selections were just beautiful. I enjoyed song after song. Soon I forget about my desperate need to sleep and simply enjoyed the music. I thought to myself that I needed to spend more time listening to music when I got back to Shonto. Since it is so hard to get a radio station due to our remote location, I planned to buy more CD’s and play them on my computer which is on most of the day. Eventually, I drifted off.

The next thing I knew, I awoke to the sound of two women chatting. Instead of being disturbed by this interruption, I listened to their conversation. They were airline stewardesses who were getting ready to go to work. I checked my watch. It was 4:15. It was too early to get up as the car rental booth didn’t open until 8. I went back to sleep.

At 6 A.M, I woke up. The airport was now bustling as travelers were checking in. I went outside and sat on a bench. Since I had the two suitcases and laptop, I knew that sooner or later I would get one of the luggage carts that travelers were using and avoid paying the $3.00. Cost wasn’t the issue, But since I had time to spare, I thought it would be foolish when I only had to wait a couple of minutes until someone else left his. I spotted a Chinese family with about ten suitcases. I knew I had my cart. I smiled in satisfaction as he emptied it, and I grabbed it. One of my suitcases was really heavy. Now I was all set.

As I sat on the bench, I watched several tiny birds as they hopped about looking for food. It hit me then that normally I would have never taken the time to do that. They were beautiful and interesting. One of thoughts that hit me was why do they hop rather than walk as we do? If any reader knows the answer, I sure would like to hear it. As stupid as it may sound, it also occurred to me how lucky I am to be a person and not a bird, dog, or cat. How often do we get to think that? ---- Only perhaps when we take the time to think it. It occurred to me that the tiny sparrows were identical and that for some reason. God has seen to it that a sparrow only mates with another sparrow – not like us Americans.

We are a mixture of every race on the planet. I chuckled as I thought of my heritage. While I am Irish, perhaps centuries and centuries ago, an invading Viking may have left his mark on my family line. Maybe one of the sailors from the Spanish armada of 1588 who was shipwrecked off the Irish coast was somewhere in my line. I prefer to assume it was a Viking, as that made me a “feared marauder.”

Then I started to watch people arriving in their cars and unloading their luggage and saying good-bye to loved ones. These people were all ages and all shapes and sizes. One woman hugged a man and just cried and cried. A black Marine walked by. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was on his way to Iraq, and if we Americans value their sacrifices enough. We are taking this war of terror for granted and need to take it more seriously.

Three workers walked by and one said that some guy had a job that paid him $15.27 an hour. He said it as if that man was so lucky. That is only in the range of $30,000 a year. Once again, I reflected on how fortunate I am to have an education and earn substantially more and love what I do.

I went into the airport to have breakfast. As I walked through, I observed the airline staff dealing with people. Most were patient and kind. I felt good about that, as service is what they are supposed to give. I ordered orange juice, a big muffin, and coffee. As I sat down, I noticed that the man next to me was terribly deformed and less than five feet tall. He was with his wife and son. It was clear that they were a happy family, and I was moved to see that in spite of his infirmity, he had love.

While I was sipping my coffee, I opened up the small suitcase and took out my 13 bottles of vitamins. For some reason, I didn’t close the suitcase. I then went to the men’s room to brush my teeth. I set that open suitcase on top of another. The next thing I knew, it had fallen off and everything came flying out. Instead of being angry with myself, I started laughing – thinking of Murphy’s Law, which is whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Just minutes before, I had made the wrong decision and now I was paying for it. I thought how I needed to trust my intuition more.

The point of this whole story is for all of us to stop and smell the roses. There is so much to appreciate about everyday life. Much of the time, we don’t see the wonders and beauty that are all around us. In retrospect, now I am glad that I had that early morning experience at the Syracuse airport. Somehow, I am a better man because of it.