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Re: Culture Shocked
by Shade (Shade@Gothcult.com)
on Jul 07, 2004 - 11:41 AM
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http://www.hotelshade.com
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I grew up in Monterey county, Ca, it had two small airports, one private and one public. I remember going to the public airport when I was like 14 and just getting onto the airplane. there was a metal detector, but they hadn't bothered to turn it on. The checkout counter was two steps from the door, the gate was two steps passed that, and the runway was just on the other side of a plexiglass window that you could lean on while you smoked and waited for your friends to come back from Hawaii.
I remember flying out of San Francisco when it was funny that we would cause a ten second delay because the security people would have to haul us out of line because our body piercings and steel toe boots were setting off the metal detectors. But you know what? We usually just pointed at our nipples and said 'steel toes' and they would give an indulgent if exasperated nod and let us go. We, the anarchist antisocial punks and rebels of the 80s they would smile indulgently and resist the urge to pat us on the back sides as we left to get on an airplane.
9 years ago now, I almost got on an airplane with a double edged 9 inch dagger tucked into my carry on bag. I had forgotten it was there and the metal detector caught it. The security guy told me that he was supposed to arrest me for that and did I need to bum a dollar to go store it in a locker for when I got back?
Today if I tried to get on an airplane with so much as a sharp edge on the steel rivets on my Doc Martins I would be sent to Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist and no one would ever hear about me again. callei and I get on airplanes wearing ninja slippers and we check our boots and I usually take out my body jewelery for the ride because it can cause a delay of as much as four hours while they decide whether or not to exray my stomach again to make sure I haven't swallowed x-ray dodging explosives.
I envy you DK, Bon Voyage and I hope you are able to come back to a kinder gentler US in a fe more years, or that you have found peace with only coming back as a visitor by then.
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