Day 7, Level 2: Egad, jet planes, songs, Pan Am, movies, and stairways

Egad (I love what this word conveys!) ... it's the last day of September. It seems like the month only just began.

"Egad" - a 17th Century rendition of Oh God. A mild exclamation expressing surprise, affirmation, outrage, contempt, anger. I think in my sentence above I'm expressing affirmation! As in, how can that sentence stating it's the end of Sept be true? But it most certainly is. Egad.

I use the word now and then as it says quite a lot in just four letters.

I use Oh God in speech. And usually OMG when writing/texting. So to come out and start with Egad today was interesting. It just felt right to use that rather than OMG.

Helen Reddy has died - Australian-born singer of I Am Woman and the enduring Delta Dawn. I grew up with her songs being played endlessly and I especially loved Delta Dawn, released by her in 1973.

I remember our ski crew from the early 1990s singing it at the top of our lungs as we stood in the lift queue. We'd have the whole queue entertained - maybe even the whole mountain! It became a kind of ski anthem, even though it had nothing to do with snow or skiing. It was just fun to sing in a beautiful mountain setting.

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky

RIP Helen Reddy.

Another song I vividly remember from that year (1973) is "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by John Denver. I was 11yo in 1973 and oh how I wanted to "Leave on a Jet Plane"!

I also loved eating them - that iconic chewy NZ lolly/sweet that is as popular today as it ever was. Except they look like Concords, not jets! I have no idea when Jet Planes lollies were introduced - but I suspect it must have been after 1976 when Concord took to the skies. Otherwise Pascall were ahead of the game and could have patented the design!

Jet Plane lollies - yum!

As it turned out, I did finally get to take my first big jet plane ride several years later, in 1977.

It was a Pan Am 747 flight from Auckland to LA - PA816. Departed Mangere International Airport, when the international section was still part of the domestic terminal, as international flights were few and far between back in those days!

I've just checked my travel journal from this trip (a school trip) to be sure I have my facts straight.

We departed at 10pm on 9th December 1977 and arrived in LA at 12.45pm on the same date. Of course, this going back in time was quite a hoot for us bunch of schoolgirls, most of whom had never left NZ before. I was 15yo. There were 16 of us, and 2 teachers. Off for a two-month trip of a lifetime around Europe and the world!

Our arrival back to NZ was into the brand new International Airport terminal - we were amongst the first to experience it. It opened on 29th January 1976. We arrived back from this trip on 2nd February 1976. I don't recall thinking much about it - other than that it was nice to arrive into a brand new proper airport and that the old one was a disgrace! By then, I had quite a few airports for comparison!

This was back in the days where there were a few screens in the cabin and everyone watched the same movie - if you could actually see the tiny screen that was generally miles away from wherever you're sitting. Way before personal entertainment units in the seatback in front of you became the norm. Being a shorter person, I always struggled to see movies in planes in the old days - I had to stretch tall, peer around other heads - and eventually usually gave up! The audio was always pretty bad too, with uncomfortable headphones.

But hey, I was in a plane, high in the sky, flying somewhere fabulous and that Pan Am flight started a lifelong love affair with the world, travel and flying.

Here's where the weird thing comes in ... I remember vividly one of the movies on that particular Pan Am flight. It was called ... wait for it ...

"Oh God"

(Refer to the first two paras of this post!) Spooooooky!

The movie starred John Denver. I always remember this, as it was the first movie I ever watched on a plane and I was surprised John Denver was even in a movie. It was a bad movie. Much as I love JD's music, it didn't surprise it was bad. He was not an actor!

My journal confirms this - I wrote "I only watched the beginning and it wasn't very good!" It also records I was in seat 23B. More than likely this was in a very poor viewing position! And obviously in the middle seat. Between two schoolmates who I didn't know well then as they were two years ahead of me - but who I got to know very well over the succeeding two months!

The other movie on the flight was "You Light Up My Life" which I thought was "good". A quick google of the movie and plot - sounds terrible!!!

Now ... I honestly had no idea until I started writing this post that it would begin with Egad, much less that I would start writing about jet plane lollies, which led to reminiscing about my first plane trip, where the movie was ... Oh God (aka Egad)!!!!

It's just a tad bizarre.

Talking of Pan Am flights - when I lived and worked in London for IPPF, there were staff travelling all over the world every day of the year somewhere or other. We had travel agents who set up an office in situ in our offices as there was so much travel going on. That was a godsend, especially when you had to book about 60 people from all over Europe to get to Varna in Bulgaria in the 1980s! Even with that on site help it wasn't simple! But I've always loved a challenge!

And oh that Balkan Air flight from London to Sofia that Lyn and I took ... an Egad flight that signified every definition of the word rolled into one! And a bit more!

That saga is another story for another post maybe ...!

Back to Pan Am ... on the day PA103 from London to New York (originating in Frankfurt) was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie (21 December 1988), there were two colleagues who would normally have been on that flight, as they did it every week. Many of our colleagues travelled regularly to NY. But thankfully not on that particular flight! Even the regulars had rescheduled for one reason or another. Phew.

Sadly, a colleague did later die in a plane crash. But I guess when you look at all the air miles everyone in that organisation did over so many years, it was inevitable. I think all of us had a few close calls over the years.

When Pan Am collapsed in December 1991 I was a bit sad, as it was the airline that took me on my first international flight. And showed me a bad (but oh-so-memorable movie!

Oh how I would love to hop on an international flight any day soon. But it ain't gonna happen any day soon. Not for us Kiwis. Although a Trans-Tasman bubble could be possible - with restrictions. But it's not Europe!

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Stairways ... to heaven ...

Even though my knee protests very much going up and down stairs and steps, there are some fabulous staircases in this world. Here's a small selection I have seen and/or walked up and/or down! Spectacular!