Pat Bean's blog

One of the trams at DFW airport that transport passengers from gate to gate and terminal to terminal. — Wikimedia photo

     ‘Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.’ — Samuel Ullman

Surviving Teenagers

Friday evening, I found myself sitting in a tram at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, hoping to get from Terminal C to Terminal A in time to catch a connecting flight to Orlando, Florida. Sitting across from me was my youngest daughter, T.C., who is a quite responsible and protective mom these days to the three boys she and her husband are raising after she raised three girls who are grown and given her grandchildren.

As I looked across the aisle at T.C., I suddenly remembered a night in 1978 when it was just her and me living together in Arlington, Texas, just a few miles from the DFW airport that had opened in 1974. My daughter was out with friends, and had an 8 p.m. curfew. By 10 minutes after 8, I was fuming and by 20 minutes after 8, I was worried and fuming.

Have a joyous one,

Shortly afterwards, I got a call from my daughter telling me she and her friends were at the airport riding the trams for fun, and asking if she could stay a bit longer. Of course, I screamed at her to get her butt home instantly.  I told this story to my grandson Patrick, who was sitting beside.  “How was that even possible?” he asked.

“That was before 9-11,” I said, realizing that he had never lived in a time before today’s paranoid airport security measures, back when anybody could follow a loved one all the way to the take-off gate, or meet them at the arrival gate. And even teenagers could explore an airport or ride the trams without the proper ID or a body pat, one of which I had before getting on my flight from Tucson to Dallas. I guess terrorists these days can even look like old broads.

“Wow!” Patrick responded to my information about the “old days.”  But I wasn’t sure he understood those days. And it made me sad.” But remembering how Patrick said he loved to come to my place because he didn’t get screamed at, I told him he should have heard me scream and howl at his mom. “It’s a mom’s responsibility to their children to scream at them,” I said, “especially if they’re teenagers. If you think it’s noisy at your house now, you should have heard the ruckus I made when I was raising your mom and her four siblings.”

I’m not sure he believed me. But I’m sure my children would love to back me up and tell him just how much they got yelled at by his Nana. Thankfully I survived those days – and so did my children. Now if we can all just survive these days.

Now available on Amazon

Bean Pat: Christmas. https://aipetcher.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/christmas-eve/ When life was simpler.

Pat Bean is a Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder. Her book, Travels with Maggie would make a great last-minute Christmas gift for all those who wander but are not lost. You can order it on Kindle or in paperback. Merry Christmas all.