PAGE 76
THE WARREN-WATCHUNG CONNECTION
NOVEMBER 2012
The CONNECTory
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The Atlanta airport is, by many
measures, the busiest airport in the
world. Millions of people change
planes there each year. It has been
said, “Should you die in the South,
you can’t get to heaven unless you
connect in Atlanta.” So it may seem
natural to make a random connec-
tion in Atlanta. Then again, with
tens of thousands of people moving
through the airport each day, a con-
nection there may seem improba-
ble. Read the following story and
then you be the judge.
I had planned on making a busi-
ness trip to Austin, Texas departing
from Newark on a Monday. My
company asked me to go a week
earlier, which was a bit inconvenient
as Abby, my wife, and I would be in
Rhode Island attending the Sunday
night wedding of her college room-
mate’s son.
The wedding concluded after
midnight and my flight left Provi-
dence at 6:00am. Compounding
only a few hours of sleep, I now had
to make a change in Atlanta to get
to Austin.
I landed in Atlanta about 8:30am.
I had plenty of time before my flight
to Austin, so I took a few minutes to
call a good friend of mine, Jamie, to
wish him a happy birthday.
By way of background, I became
friendly with Jamie about thirty
years ago, when we both lived in
Atlanta and worked for the same
consulting company. I moved away
from Atlanta over twenty years ago,
but Jamie and I have stayed in
touch. I hadn’t seen Jamie since we
worked together on a client assign-
ment ten years ago.
The conversation went some-
thing like this.
“
Hi Jamie, it’s Dan, happy birthday.”
“
Thanks. How are you?”
“
I’m fine. I just landed in Atlanta
and changing planes.”
Jamie then replied, “I am at
home but headed to the airport in
about twenty minutes. I am sorry I
am going to miss you.”
“
Maybe not,” I said. “My layover
is over two hours. Maybe we can
grab a cup of coffee.”
“
Where are you going?”
“
Austin.”
Then Jamie tipped his hand, “Are
you on the 10:55 flight?”
“
Yes.” And laughing I said, “And
I suppose you are as well.”
Indeed Jamie and I were on the
same flight to Austin, Texas. It
turned out that his seat was in the
row behind me. I had a window seat
and Jamie had an aisle seat. One of
the nearby passengers was more
than willing to trade his middle seat
next to me for Jamie’s window seat.
Jamie and I had a wonderful two
hour visit en route to Austin and
agreed that we should meet again,
sooner than ten years, with our
wives, and not rely on a random
connection.
CONNECTING IN THE ATLANTA AIRPORT
By: Dan Rosenberg
www.theconnectionsnj.com