The ORIGINAL 1000+ Posts Club

[Lumière]

Paul,

I know .. I listen to Mama Cass all the time ..
My fave song:


 "Make your own kind of music" .. 

Nobody can tell ya;
There's only one song worth singin'.
They may try and sell ya,
'cause it hangs them up
to see somone like you.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sing along.

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

You're gonna be knowing
the loneliest kind of lonely.
It may be rough goin',
just to do your thing's
the hardest thing to do.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sings along.

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

You gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sings along.

[southendmd]

Milli,

I know where that came from; I had this as a kid:

I always liked her "Dream a Little Dream of Me".

[Jeff Wrangler]

Milli,

Mama Cass rules.  Think of all the music she would have made had she lived...
With John gone, there's only the Mama and the Papa now. 

A great voice stilled way too soon. 

[moremojo]

Anyway, we all have our phobias.  I am bad with heights .. that is why I have never been on a rollercoaster ride in my life ..

I have a fear of both flying and heights. As a teenager, I went on a small ride that had been described to me by my cousin as a child's rollercoaster, and was terrified! The big ones are out of the question. And I haven't been on a plane in over twenty-one years, and can't conceive ever boarding one again.

In fact, to me, a fear of flying and a fear of heights would seem to go hand in hand. But my sister is absolutely fine with flying, yet has acrophobia, and now your post affirms that the two need not be related. And yet, you can't get any higher than on a jet plane, barring leaving the earth's atmosphere as an astronaut does; on an average jet-plane flight, you are higher than Mount Everest, the highest point of land on the planet. And you have nothing but air between the plane you are sitting in and terra firma!

I think I'll stay grounded for now, at least for the time being. (But, of course, what would Ennis and/or Jack do? ).

[David]

Indeed.  I don't like rollercoasters either.   I remember being 10 years old and being encouraged to ride one by my parents.  "Try it, you'll like it".      I tried it, I didn't like it!   Scared the hell out of me.   LOL

Now flying however.   I wasn't afraid to fly.   I do remember my first flight.  I was 24 yrs old.  I went with my first boyfriend to Cincinnatti for a Cadillac show.    I was doing great until I looked out the window and saw that we were miles up above the earth.   Then I got a little quoozy.    I just grabbed a magazine and flipped thru it.  The feeling went away.   I have been fine since.  Well,  rough turbulance still gets me motion sick though.   I don't like that!    LOL.   

Nowadays I always get a window seat.   I love to watch the scenery.   Manhattan is awesome from the air!     Then again, so is the painted desert and rockie mountains.     I just wish they fed us better on the planes and had more room.   I have only flown First Class once.  Now that I've seen how nice it can be, I see how we are treated like cattle in the back of the plane!    LOL.

[Lumière]

Scott ~ 
I know it seems contradictory ..lol, but flying is fine with me..

I was in Calgary for a day, last November hanging out with a friend .. and we decided to go up to the Calgary Tower for the fun of it ..
When we got there, we paid and went up to the "Observation Deck" where you get to see the whole city 525 feet above ground ..
Anyway, they have these glass floors you can walk on and look down at the streets etc..and glass walls around them.

When I got close to them, my legs started shaking and I got dizzy ..lol..I could not get on the glass floors, no way Jose ..    To top it all off, there was a kid there with his dad and he kept jumping up and down on the floors and I was freaking out coz I was terrified they would crack and he would go crashing 500 feet to the ground..    They claim that the glass floors are strong enough to hold a couple of hippos, but I'm not so sure .. 

Anyway, if you are ever in Calgary (namely in July for the Brokie gathering)..do check out the Calgary tower observation deck if you get a chance. 

[moremojo]

  I was doing great until I looked out the window and saw that we were miles up above the earth.   Then I got a little quoozy.    I just grabbed a magazine and flipped thru it.  The feeling went away.   I have been fine since.

My very first plane flight was as a babe in arms, when my mother took me from Dallas to (I believe) Houston; of course, I have no memory of this event.

My first flight of which I was cognizant was in 1980, going from Austin to Houston Intercontinental (Dulles airport in Virginia was our ultimate destination). As departure time neared, my nervousness increased, and I would not look out the window during take-off. When I did muster the courage to so, I was astonished to see how high we had ascended, and in so short a time. I was in quiet-panic mode from that point on, and was just praying for the trip to end.    

I just wish they fed us better on the planes and had more room.   I have only flown First Class once.  Now that I've seen how nice it can be, I see how we are treated like cattle in the back of the plane!    LOL.

Yes, there used to be some glamor associated with air travel, but now planes seem like buses in the sky. The horrible stories I have heard of poor service and air rage do nothing to bolster my confidence in this mode of travel.

[David]

Flying is so surreal to me.  It doesn't feel like travelling.   A three hour car trip is travelling.   Walking onto a plane, sitting down for a few hours then getting off across the country is just too bizarre.   To think that in the time it takes us to watch BBM I can fly to Florida!     It feels so weird to step off a plane and into a different time zone or country even.   Now I know why Cunard used to advertise their Ocean liners as "Getting there is half the Trip".

[southendmd]

I first flew when I was about five, and have flown many times, including transatlantic.  Usually doesn't bother me.  I don't like landings, though.

It's those little planes  I don't like:  I once went from Boston to Provincetown on a little Cessna.  I tried to focus on the coastline and tried to recognize things and keep my mind occupied.  Luckily, it's only a twenty-minute flight.  

However, on the return trip, they seated me in the copilot's seat!  Strapped in, a steering wheel thingie in my face, a big sign saying "don't touch anything and don't talk to the pilot".  The pilot looked about twelve years old, and seemed to be reading a little card on how to fly the plane.  Panic.  Windshield in front of me, hot sun, no AC and you can't open the windows.  Here comes Logan Airport looking huge.  

Nothing like facing your fears head-on.  It was like I was landing the plane; I couldn't avoid it.  It was in my face.  We touched down light as a feather.  I was breathing again.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I was cured of my fear of flying by not having any choice in the matter, if I wanted to make the trip I had scheduled.

My first flight was in the early spring of 1984. I was still living in my home town of Lancaster at the time, and was going to visit an old roommate in Boston for the weekend. I was flying out of Harrisburg, Pa., and because I was nervous, I had booked a direct flight from Harrisburg to Boston on a "big" plane.''

Came the day of my trip, guess what? Mechanical problems, they couldn't get the "big" plane started!  Somehow, I didn't freak out--not even when I was informed that in place of the "big" plane, we were being put on board a "little" (commuter) flight to Newark, where we would transfer to another flight to Boston.

Lovely. Just the situation I had tried to avoid in making my travel arrangements. 

Then we got up in the air in that "little" plane, and I looked out the window at the whole world spread out below me "in miniature," like on a map, and I absolutely loved it! It was like magic! I was hooked!

And please bear in mind that I am otherwise the biggest friggin' physical coward on the face of the earth! Put me on top of a three-foot step ladder and my legs turn to limp spaghetti!  Got no problems standing on the balcony of the 30th-floor condo, but a three-foot step ladder? Forget it!

I think I wasn't frightened because of the "unreality" of that experience, looking down at "the whole world in miniature." Since that first flight, I've flown many times on the commuter hop from Boston to Provincetown, and once, in 1985, I even got to ride the co-pilot's seat for a small-plane flight from St. Croix, U.S.V.I., to San Juan.

So I love to fly, but dealing with airports, however, having to show up two friggin' hours before my flight. ... 

(Sorry, David. I know it ain't your fault.  )