One Night Only: Why I love Being A Pilot
Midway was a very social airline in that the people were very pleasant to work with and the camaraderie was fantastic. It was Midway Airline that brought Midway Airport back to life and also brought the southwest side of Chicago back to life. Well, I was in my late 30s when I got hired and I flew with lots of chicks in their early 20s and LOVED it!! We had a 4-day trip, and the first day we only had one leg to fly and it was a brutally long haul from Chicago to Omaha (lol).
We got into Omaha roughly around 10:30 AM that morning and we had the rest of the day off. There was nothing to do, so I decided to take a nap around noon and within the hour my phone rang in my room. We had three flight attendants with us and as with all women, they wanted to go shopping at the Omaha Mall way out on the west side of town, but they wanted an escort. My partner turned them down on-going shopping because he was tired, but I agreed to go with them. Well, I spent from roughly 2 PM that afternoon until 11 PM that night with three nice looking flight attendants. I went with them to the mall and watched them shop until about 5:30 PM. We took the bus back to the center of town and one of them said, “Hey, would you guys be interested in eating downtown instead of back at our hotel??” and we said sure!
We got off the bus and walked about one block to the restaurant and on the way to that restaurant, as we were crossing the street, we saw a marquee down the block on the Orpheum Theater that said TONIGHT ONLY – WAYNE NEWTON LIVE – 8 PM. We got seated in the restaurant and after placing our order one of the attendants went over to a pay phone (yes, this was in the olden days with pay phones, lol) and she called that theater. She came back and said, “Hey guys, it REALLY IS THE Wayne Newton and they have seats available. The cost is $25 per seat.” I said, “Dinner and drinks are on me, but you’ll have to cover the cost of the seats yourselves.” We walked down to the Orpheum Theater and got seats. The lights went out and a blue-white light came on at the right side of the stage, the music came on and the floor was all fogged up and out came Wayne Newton!
Wayne put on an incredible show for roughly an hour and a half and it truly was fantastic!!! We were only about 5-rows away from the stage. If I had never gone with them, I would never have had that great of a time!! Wayne Newton struck me as just an incredible entertainer and a genuinely nice person. He played the guitar, the banjo, the clarinet, the piano and I forgot what else he played, but the guy is super talented!!! If you ever get the chance, definitely go see a Wayne Newton show, you won’t regret it!! We saw Wayne when he was young, slender, had his mustache and the women went nuts!
The flight attendants would occasionally lean forward and say, “Can you believe we are watching Wayne Newton in Omaha, Nebraska of all places?!?!” The next morning all three of the attendants told my partner, “Boy did you miss a great time yesterday!!” In what other career field do you get to go out with three foxy ladies by yourself, plus get paid to travel and get paid to fly a commercial jet??? I CRAVED flying for a living!
NEXT UP: When You Have To Dress Down A Cranky Passenger
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