Waiting to Fly
May 7th, 2006 at 6:23 am by Susie
The shuttle came at 4:20 a.m. to take us to the Tampa airport. We had to stop in Pinellas Park to pick up a young couple headed for an Alaska cruise. “What the hell are you so perky about at this time of the morning?” I grumbled as they got in the van.
I suppose it’ll be good to be home; it’s just the traveling part I hate.
Yesterday we took the trolley bus to John’s Pass Village, and we’d gotten about four blocks when we had to pull over because a guy at the front of the bus was falling over. So we had to wait for help, and finally a firetruck pulled up with an EMT squad. They were working on the guy and called for an ambulance. We waited some more. (Turns out the guy was overdosing on an assortment of prescription drugs, judging from the bottle he clutched in his hand.)
“They’re never going to believe me at work,” the exasperated lady sitting near us said. We started talking; it turned out she was originally from Upper Darby, one of the Philadelphia suburbs I covered as a reporter.
One theme was constant, everywhere we went: Few jobs, and the ones that existed paid barely enough to get by. This woman was shaking her head, telling me people felt lucky to get $7 an hour.
I also talked to a lady working behind a counter at a small store, a retired schoolteacher with a deep-fried Kentucky accent. “We have to get rid of those Republicans,” she said. “I can’t believe what’s happening to this country.”
if only it were just the republicans.