Back in the mid-nineties, when I was working for American Airlines as a Flight Operations Agent, planning flights, briefing crews, and coordinating everything to ensure flights arrived and departed on time.
The flight operations room had very few windows and was lit with harsh fluorescent lights, which are difficult to work with due to their flicker, The flicker isn’t normally discernible unless you concentrate on your peripheral vision and it can then be sensed.
These lights are very good for office work as they cast little or no shadow, but if using a computer screen (which also flickers) they can cause sight problems as your iris struggles to cope with the flickering.
Enough of the technical details then.
Being heartily fed up with the eye-ache, I ferreted around for a solution, and during one very uneventful night shift, I found a battered old Angle Poise lamp which had been discarded inside a dark and cluttered corner of an unused office. Further investigating led me to a new bulb in a cupboard, and once wiped off with a cloth, the old lamp worked perfectly. I placed it on the main Operations desk and I would use it whenever I was positioned in that area. I found it particularly useful on night shifts when I worked alone and could turn off the fluorescent’s and enjoy a softer light emitted by the incandescent light bulb.
However, I found nobody else seemed to appreciate my desk light, because when I returned onto shift after a few days off I often found the lamp had been pushed back out of the way.
Just before I went on vacation, one time, the bulb blew, so I threw it away and departed for a fortnight’s tranquillity away from the office. No sooner had I returned from that vacation, I was accosted by my work companions who accused me of taking the bulb on holiday.
Because of this, I decided that my next vacation would see me having some fun at their expense. This time I deliberately took the bulb out of the Angle poise fitting and locked it away in my cabinet, leaving the office with the Angle Poise containing no light bulb again.
This vacation took me to the good old USA, travelling on standby.
It now feels like a previous life and such a long time ago when Airline concessions meant you could fly almost anywhere in the world for about £5 or less.
The downside being that there had to be a spare seat on the aircraft and you had to have enough seniority for that seat if it was in contention with another standby passenger. That dreaded call over the gate speaker phone of (standby passenger Mr Pook please come to the desk) the memory still fills me with dread these day.
It either meant you were on the flight and given a seat allocation, or you had been bumped from the flight because it was full. You never knew where you were as the list of names were called out and each standby passenger was called forward, but as each name was called you knew it meant the flight was getting closer to full. At that point you have absolutely no control over your destiny, especially if you were tight for your next duty day.
Being bumped off a flight (as it was called) was no excuse for not showing on shift, it was a serious disciplinary offence. You would surely be in the proverbial if you didn’t show at work.
Travelling as a non rev also required you to dress in smart casual attire, the smarter you were the more chance you might get an upgrade. It meant no jeans and the wearing of a tie was of course a necessity.
You had to run a thin line between being forceful enough that the gate agent wouldn’t forget you, but subservient enough so you would not upset them. To upset or annoy any check in or gate staff would be at your peril. They had ways and means of spoiling your day, big time.
Anyway after a couple of stand by listings and boring flights, I eventually arrived in Muskogee Oklahoma with Diane and we were met by our good friends, Terry and Vikki & Charlie and Sandy, with whom Diane and I would be spending our vacation.
Over breakfast the next morning, I asked Terry if I could borrow a light bulb, which was greeted by a strange look but I did get the light bulb.
I then started taking photos of the bulb and me on holiday. Each picture got more and more elaborate and set up to highlight (excuse the pun) that I had indeed, this time, taken the bulb on vacation with me.
Here are a few of those pictures.
I hope you enjoy my rather schoolboy humour.
Onlyvfr 