This look-in-the-rearview (here’s another) may become part of series of remembrances about what ordinary life was like in America when America was still a free country. It is telling one almost never hears that phrase uttered any longer.
For reasons that are depressingly apparent.
Of course, it was never a Libertarian utopia. But it wasn’t what it has become.
Today’s look backward is offered on the day that has become an acronym for an event. “911” – as people have been conditioned to refer to it, which is psychologically interesting and also interestingly convenient in that what are the odds the evildoers – as The Chimp liked to refer to them – would fly commercial jets into buildings on a date that coincides with the number every little kid is taught ought to be dialed in an emergency?
One of the things I remember is that number and that saying became synonymous – within hours of the evildoers supposedly flying commercial jets into buildings. I say supposedly because it is still hard-to-believe that men who’d never previously flown commercial jets (or even hets, for that matter) could fly them so adroitly, especially as regards the commercial jet that executed remarkable flying janks all the way into the side of the Pentagon at near ground-level while flying at hundreds of miles per hour on the way there.
I was on the editorial page staff of The Washington Times on September 11, 2001. I remember how all-of-a-sudden, the higher ups at my paper – and every other media outlet – were saying “911” rather than “terrorist attacks,” which struck me as odd because of the near-unanimity of the usage. It seemed unnatural, coached. I still think so, almost a quarter-century after the fact.
But the thing I wanted to remember with you in this column – and convey to those too young to remember, having not been around then or not old enough, then – is what it was like to visit an airport in the Before Time.
Where to begin?
How about with that you could could just go there – spur of the moment?
I used to live about ten minutes away from Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia, just outside DC. I could leave my place 30 minutes before a flight was scheduled to leave and be on that flight. There was no having to get there an hour before the flight’s scheduled departure, in order to be processed like a just-arrested felon as a condition of being allowed to board. If you could run from the curb where you just got dropped off and make it to the gate before they closed the airplane’s door, you made it.
Also, you didn’t have to have a ticket to go all the way to the departure gates.
In the Before Time, friends and family would as a matter of routine accompany the person flying to the gate, to see them off. Or be there – at the gate – when their friend of family member deplaned.
You could walk to the gate with a cup of coffee or a soda, too.
The “enemies of freedom” – that is to say, The Chimp and the people around him, such as Dick Cheney and Michael Chertoff – hadn’t yet terrorized the population into a herd of compliant cattle. America had not yet become a “homeland,” with all the 1930s Germany implications.
You could buy a ticket at the last minute – and with cash, too. There was a time, if you can imagine it, when you were not even required to present ID to buy a ticket or to board the plane. You just gave the person manning the gate your ticket.
You were treated like a customer rather than a criminal.
An airport visit was pleasant in that it wasn’t an obedience ritual, as it has become since that beautiful early-fall day of 23 years ago. Unless you – specifically you – did something to call attention to yourself as some kind of weirdo or criminal – you were not molested by blue-suited government goons. No one rifled through your possessions – or felt the inner thighs, cupped the breasts of your wife/daughter. Such things were unthinkable outside of prisons.
You walked through a metal detector. That was all. Your person was not violated. No one touched you. That was illegal, outside of prisons or an arrest on the street for having committed a crime.
Of course, even that – the walking through a metal detector – was a beginning – although most of us did not recognize it at the time. Just the same as most people did not recognize that when the government forced people to buy seat belts, it would inexorably force them to wear them, too. And then buy air bags. And after that, “advanced driver assistance technology.”
Because that’s how you get from there to here – whether in your car or at the airport.
. . .
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[…] is another chapter in the Before Time series of articles (here’s the last one) written by those who experienced those times for the sake of the edification of […]
[…] is another chapter in the Before Time series of articles (here’s the last one) written by those who experienced those times for the sake of the edification of […]
[…] is another chapter in the Before Time series of articles (here’s the last one) written by those who experienced those times for the sake of the edification of […]
Haven’t flown in several years but have heard nowadays they’ll take you to the side for a “random” security check and grab your junk as a diversion while they cart your laptop bag off to the lost & found, likely assuming TSA victims fresh off a sudden groping don’t have the time or will to chase down and claim even high-value belongings. Guess that’s why you have to get there so early, same as having to leave early enough for work to account for the likelihood of bein pulled over for absolutely nothing
Morning, Moose!
I last flew in 2016 and doubt I ever will again. Probably because I refuse to forget how it used to be and so cannot abide how it is now.
Same, was never into traaaveling so I don’t take those types of jobs anymore, and can always drive to whatever places I’d be interested in going to.. But it sounds like most of the country has similarly gone to shit anyway, so the mood’s not hit me in some time now 😂
>I last flew in 2016
The last time I travelled any distance in the continental US was 2014. I took Amtrak.
My recommendation is to pay for a sleeper compartment, for two reasons:
1) Sleeping upright in one of their chairs is *not* comfortable.
2) While most passengers are polite and well behaved, count on at least one drunken boor to ruin the experience. Pay for the compartment, so you can shut out all obnoxious travelers, and sleep in comfort.
Some interesting conversation over breakfast in the domed observation car. Can’t get that on a commercial airliner, neither the conversation nor the scenery.
In the military in the 1970s. Flew mucho times,,, some on ‘stand-by’ some full fare. People were polite,,, well dressed,,, and clean. The food was great! Stewardesses and pilots friendly and helpful. The aircraft were almost white glove clean and smelled clean. No parts falling off in flight and no collisions on taxiways. But it did cost more. No TSA even after some planes were hijacked.
Lately,,, I have watched vids of passengers being mistreated and thrown off especially during the covid scam. Some airlines today allow the obese free seats throwing off paying passengers that paid for those seats. Food? Last flight I was on (6 hours) gave me a pack of peanuts. Passengers today dressed in T-shirts and jeans many without showers for days. Children uncontrolled. Packed in like sardines one can barely move. Even First Class and Business Class suck these days.
The TSA is a bad picture of government abuse. Stand in line holding your shoes so someone can feel you up. Put you on a terror list like they have Tulsi Gabbard which requires even more unlawful and immoral searches. Yet people put up with it guarantying it will only get worse.
Indeed, Ken –
At the time – when the Obedience Kabuki was initially rolled out – I did all I could to persuade people to protest by not flying. The same as I urged people to refuse to “mask up.” Had enough people refused to fly – or “mask up” – it would have been impossible for them to continue to require the Obedience Kabuki (or the “masks”) and it would have ended within six months at the most. But here we are – 23 years later – and it’ll never end now because it has been normalized and accepted.
I flew from Detroit to Daytona Beach in the late 70s to see the IMSA Camel GT 24-hours of Daytona race. The plane was not even one-tenth full on that route (with a quick stop in Raleigh/Durham). I could flip up the armrests of an entire row of seats and sleep laying down all the way there. A hot lunch and all-you-could-drink sodas were included in the ticket price, too!
Ah the “Before Time”…
In the mid 1980s I worked college summer jobs as a wildland fireman. I recall coming back to California on a commercial flight with my 6 inch Kabar on my belt. On one leg the pilot politely asked to hold it for the flight.
I also remember all the people who laughed when I told them how bad it would get. We will never allow ourselves to be searched getting on a plane like (the movies showed) in the Soviet Union.
How timely.
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/shocker-iran-funneling-billions-through-the-feds-system-151402/
Just how times have changed! In the 80’s we’d go to the airport for a Sunday family outing, easy to pass thru “Security” — just a walk thru with the family, them out to the end of the gates to the “viewing” area. Here was a lounge with wide viewing seating and comfy tables for families. Brought along a scanner to hear the radio traffic on the field and arrivals and departures. GRAND way to have a family outing on a Sunday afternoon. Took a camera along as well — no problems with anybody, and there were many people out enjoying the show.
Try that today!
Just sitting in the car at the end of the runways under the flight path today is looked on as if we were carrying some kind of device to cause trouble. The viewing area today available are closely watched and you had better not get out of your car to do anything or you might have a AGW come by to see what you are up to.
Just how much it has changed today.
So today I watch trains at a junction. And even there they have posted most of area “no parking” so you need to find another isolated spot to train watch.
Just stay home and hide from the g. My 2 cents worth.
How many times was that repeated over the years? How many kids got the flying bug after dad took them out to the airport for the afternoon? Why can’t the airlines find cheap labor anymore? These days the airports are fenced off, and the employees cloistered away behind steel doors. The FAA has made it nearly impossible to get your commercial rating without $100K to blow on touch and goes to build hours (unless you’re flying for Uncle Sam, then it’s other people’s money), but more importantly, those 1600 hours in a Cessna aren’t going to be fun unless you’re really into flying, the spark of which happens when you’re young.
Government, worse than most diseases, destroys everything it touches.
Nothing like being pushed back in your seats when the throttles of the 707 were pushed. Fuel was cheap and time was money.
Used to frequently fly on an aircraft (DC-6. I believe) which had a curved lounge in the tail which seated 6 or 8 (again forgive my memory lapses, that was in the mid-’60s). The stewardesses I do not forget. Young, pretty, personable and full of wonderful stories. That was their “duty station” quite often because few liked riding in the tail. Always smiling, always full of great stories, etc.
I Rode back there with a group of kids from Oakwood College in Huntsville one time. I got 6 shrimp cocktails. Oakwood is a 7th day Adventist college. Those were the “appetizer” course of the meal. In coach! Today I guess we would just sit there and eat our bag of pretzels. (I will admit that the flight would only cost 25% of the fares back then, even in “inflated” dollars.)
I absolutely love to fly, but don’t expect to ever fly again. I will not tolerate the crap.
I remember in college 1979 deciding at last minute to buy tickets to fly from San Diego home to San Francisco. Did this by myself by going to the airport. And i was a dumb young kid. I recall a year later, late for my 1980 flight to Pittsburgh, running from the curb where I had been dropped off by my friend to the gate. Got on the flight. In 1974, 14 years old, parents walked me to the gate, sat in big comfy seat nice kind stewardess and landed in Chicago. Saw the pilot in the bookstore in Chicago buying some gum and chatted briefly before getting back on a connecting flight to Pittsburgh. Flying was fun and definitely did not require taking off shoes, getting yelled at by TSA. In fact there was no TSA. And I swear the seats were way bigger and more comfortable.
‘There was a time, if you can imagine it, when you were not even required to present ID to buy a ticket or to board the plane. You just gave the person manning the gate your ticket.’ — eric
As a result, in the 1980s an active gray market existed for frequent flyer awards. Business travelers who racked up more miles than they could use personally, could request an award ticket in their name and sell it for cash through a broker.
This only worked because identity wasn’t verified. Once I bought a business class New York-Osaka round trip for $1,500 and traveled under someone else’s name (“refill your drink, Mr X?”).
Didn’t take long before the airlines and Big Gov banded together to suppress that gray market by verifying identity and prohibiting ticket transfers.
“especially as regards the commercial jet that executed remarkable flying janks all the way into the side of the Pentagon at near ground-level while flying at hundreds of miles per hour on the way there.”
Not even Sully Sullenberger could pull that off, let alone 4 random guys with little training and no experience.
Funny how quickly the “patriot” act came about after 9/11. It’s almost like they had it in their hip pocket and were waiting for the right moment…
What do you think they do at all those “think tanks?” Go through Epstein’s DVD collection?
(I’m sure there’s time for that too)
The genius of Dr Strangelove isn’t just making the doomsday scenario plausible and a comedy at the same time, it’s that Kubrick had enough access to the sausage factory to make the story real.
Mike your are right, the patriot act was pre-written in wait for the right crisis to happen in order to circumvent the constitution by government and for the government. Listen to Judge Andrew Napolitano talk about it. It’s a re-write of every federal code. It says thinks like; change US Section 18 para X-YZ from “and” to “shall”, etc on down for hundreds of pages. You have to have the entire federal code open in front of you to read a line from the patriot act to interpret how it changes each and every sentence to a new meaning. Nobody read the patriot act before voting on it. Only Ron Paul and a hand full of others voted against it. The government laced letters with anthrax to hold out senators to scare them into voting for it.
We live in a banana republic.
>We live in a banana republic.
Aber, ohne bananen.
This is why we need global warming.
Hell, if we are going to live in a banana republic, we are entitled to our bananas!
Time to warm this place up, so we can grow our ‘nanners! 🙂
Eric,
That’s no joke about being able to board your flight right before it left. I know, because that’s how my flight to O’Hare (on my way to Great Lakes for Navy boot camp) went. We literally RAN to the gate at Newark Airport! We got to the gate winded, and we boarded less than five minutes before they closed the door. That was only a few years after the epic Hertz commercial with OJ Simpson dashing through the airport to make his flight. That flight between EWR and ORD was the only time I flew on a Boeing 707, as the big airlines were phasing it out in 1980…
Spent many early morning hours sleeping in terminal chairs @ ORD, flying TWA student standby ABQ->ORD->BOS, or the reverse.
Equipment always was either Boeing 707 or Convair 880.
This was in he late 1960s.
Stopping slave mobility…herd them into 15 min. city/prison camps….where they can be dealt with…
All the airports will be shut down, private cars banned….getting closer….
The before times, greeting family at the gate. Early 80s? Was there to pick up mom and her pal on the return from Hawaii. Could hear raucous laughter from the jetway and thought “wow what a couple of lushes probably drank all the way home”. It was momsie and her pal Phyllis. 75 years young and toasted. Good thing I was driving!
Also, in ‘75 I was flying home from LA to SEA. Boss said, if you want an earlier flight just take your United ticket over to Western they’ll honor it for that earlier flight home.
? Sure enough, hour to take off they grabbed my United ticket gave me a Western boarding pass off to home two hours early. Easy peasy interchange good luck today. 727s with actual human sized seats in coach.
I was in Pittsburgh for a meeting. Mom was flying a lot for work back then, and I knew she would be landing in PIT about 6:00, so I surprised her by waiting at the end of the gate. She skipped her connecting flight, called dad on my cell phone to tell him to pick up her bag. We got dinner in town and I drove her home.
I don’t think any part of that story is possible today. For sure if her bag got on a flight she wasn’t on they’d hold the flight, fish out her luggage and probably just dump it on the ramp. Or send it to the TSA for further “screening.”
By the way, if you watch that video be sure to read the description.
I remember. I remember getting out of a cab, handing my suitcase to a skycap, paying him a buck (because I was a poor student at the time and even that $1 was a serious cut into my beer money), walking into the airport and ogling the stewardesses and the cute gate attendant… who called me ‘sugar’ and made my day. I remember ordering drinks on the plane and not getting carded -I probably still have the little empty bottles somewhere- and getting extra peanuts and a cookie from 1st class too because the stewardesses took pity on me.
Ok maybe I got the cookie (several actually) years later when actually flying first class, but it’s my story!
I also remember landing in Pittsburgh in a snowstorm, getting a room voucher and a meal ticket, which I think I used at an Eat-N-Park near the motel. Then no sleep, a 7:00 flight out on a freezing cold commuter plane to home. Called the folks collect from a pay phone in the lobby to let them know what was going on.
Thing was, all the airline personnel were great. They can’t control the weather so getting upset with them doesn’t do anyone any good, and I quickly learned it’s always better to treat service people with respect and kindness. These days the flight attendants hide in the back, not interacting at all with the cattle. I understand why, but it’s a shame that we’ve come to this.
“ handing my suitcase to a skycap “. Yep, those were the days. Do curbside baggage check with the daughters well overweight/oversize bags, twenty bucks to the skycap and off they went no $100 extra ever. $40 to ensure your 60 lb bag actually ended up where it was supposed to go.
Visiting her in Florida during her Disney mgmt days, scored a hotel deal dirt cheap then slip a $50 to the night check in clerk for a resort facing room on 10th (Disney World fireworks show) instead of the 2nd floor facing the kitchen dumpster. Those night clerks not so good on sprekin zee English but a 50 then if hesitant an extra 20 to seal the deal. US currency the universal language.
On 9112001 the BBC reported that WTC7 collapsed 30 minutes before it collapsed. And it was not struck by an airplane, and it collapsed by a controlled demolition – as you can see in numerous videos the details of the “squibs” blowing as the building is coming down.
https://rumble.com/v1ztmei-flashback-bbc-reports-wtc7-collapse-while-it-stands-behind-reporter.html
What this means is that the 911 attack was by the US Government and others, like the Mossad and Britain. Controlled demolitions take months of preparations. A controlled demolition also means those nasty ragheads didn’t do it – but they got blamed for it – thus the Muslims are the patsies in a sophisticated psyop false flag.
Then we lost our freedoms – the government had already drawn up the laws to restrict our freedoms, and created the Dept. of Homeland Security. The first head of the DHS was ordained rabbi Michael Chertoff – who sent the 7 dancing Israelis, caught on 911, filming the collapse and high fiving back to Israel where they admitted on Israeli TV they had been sent to document the event.
To this day Donald Trump maintains the official narrative of 911 when he damn well knows better. Kamala Harris has no opinion because she is a brainless whore – incapable of critical thought or facts.
To this day, no one who planted the charges, planned the attack, or took part in the event or the coverup has been charged.
Ryan Dawson 2011 Documentary: War by Deception! 911 and the Cover Up! [2011]
https://rumble.com/v5c60c1-ryan-dawson-2011-documentary-war-by-deception-911-and-the-cover-up-2011.html
WTC7 Collapse multiple angles World Trade Centre Building 7
https://rumble.com/vm976j-wtc7-collapse-multiple-angles-world-trade-centre-building-7.html
WTC7 was NOT struck by an airplane, but it DID collapse at freefall speed, thus WTC7 is the anomaly that destroys the official 911 report of why the North and South tower collapsed.
“Our Purpose Was To Document The Event” – Five Dancing Israelis Arrested On September 11th
https://rumble.com/v1kmgxp-our-purpose-was-to-document-the-event-five-dancing-israelis-arrested-on-sep.html
You see folks, it is ok for Israeli Jews to blow up Amerikan buildings, because the Jews control our media, courts, police, politicians, wars, internal policies. So if you want to know who is terrorizing you – it is the Jews. You should be able to deduce that from the evidence. And now, with the in your face Gaza genocide – you should be able to put 2 and 2 together, the real terrorists on the planet are Jews and Israel. And you should conclude that Israel is an existential threat to the survival of our republic.
And no, I am not watching the Trump-Harris debate, because both are slavish Ziowhore clowns. I am not interested in what either have to say, because both are traitorous sold out whores to the Jewish lobby and Israel. No money should be given to Israel, ever, for 911, for genocide, etc. Not to mention that it is illegal to give even one penny to Israel because the USA is a signator to the NNPT which prohibits funding a state in violation of the NNPT. Iran has signed the NNPT and Israel has not.
No one was charged for 9-11. No one was charged over the housing crash/banker bailout. No one was charged with any deaths related to the safe and effective. No one was charged with the fraud of the 2020 election. J-6rs continue rotting in an American gulag three years after the minor crimes of breaking glass and trespassing. Its almost as if we don’t really have a rule of law.
And no one was even fired!
In the private sector, when something hits the fan, leaders often are fired or at least resign.
But not in government.
Never mind 9/11, the Great Recession, or COVID—Was anyone in the Treasury or Federal Reserve fired after the Great Depression? Was anyone in naval intelligence fired after Pearl Harbor? Was anyone in the Secret Service fired after JFK died? Was anyone in the Defense Department fired after Vietnam? Was anyone in the State Department fired after the Iran hostage crisis?
Because government means never having to say you’re sorry.
It still to this day blows my mind how the news just skippy skipped right past the appalling fact of WTC7 falling down demo style for No. Apparent. Reason. Even when that became a well known fact, the entire media just shrugged their shoulders and ignored the implications.
That was the first time I realized there was a reality inversion going on and the news wasn’t just a straightforward reporting of the facts.
The USG “in cahoots” with the MOSSAD. CUI BONO?
The dancing Israelis were jumping for joy on 911. They were detained but then were released.
Lots of arms and legs went to the warehouse that day.
A pretty price was paid, no doubt.
Short the airlines, good money for those in the know. They have a nose for mischief.
I purchased an airline ticket in 1972, bought it at the terminal, paid about 150 dollars for a one-way ticket back to your work destination. It was a fer piece to get there.
I boarded the plane, was back home by 8:00 pm that night.
I don’t remember ever producing an id, it would have been State issued back then, paid the money, you’re flying eight miles high.
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
I landed at O’Hare Airport in Chicago on October 31 of that year. There was an announcement on the pa system asking for Count Dracula to report to the terminal office.
Count Dracula, Count Dracula, please report…
It was dark outside and you just never know, Dracula could have been flying that day. Jets beat bats.
No kidding, the humor is always there.
Corbett Report: 9/11 Suspects – The Dancing Israelis
https://rumble.com/v3gkb6a-911-suspects-dancing-israelis-.html
For anyone who hasn’t dug around in Corbett’s archives before, the guy’s done a lot of other great work aside from covering 9/11.. like How Big Oil Conquered the World, or Meet Elon Musk Technocratic Huckster.. his research is top notch, makes normies on youtube super buttmad whenever reuploads of his work get past the algorithms.. they can’t reconcile their brainwashing with all the clear conspiracies being presented
Used to do a fair amount of flying in the Navy in the 90s. It was immensely better than now.
Now I won’t fly again – ever.
Growing up in the 80s, the cops didn’t seem as bad either. There weren’t video cameras everywhere. People were generally normal and friendly. Obesity was not everywhere.
I don’t remember so many entitled people, and those on food stamps or welfare were embarrassed to be so.
We didn’t have cable TV so maybe I was sheltered.
Cops were more fair. It was a game if you will. We did stuff, they tried to catch us. At the end of the day it wasn’t personal with them. Many times, if you were caught with weed, they would take it away then send you on your way.
I as well don’t remember so many people on food stamps and welfare. Yes, the economy is a mess and most people are having a hard time, but beyond that, Theres no shame left in the diet of most 400 pounders. The ones using the snap cards around here usually have carts full of pop, chips, cookies and all the things that come from the inside isles of the store. Its almost as if the avoid the stuff on the walls (fresh fruits, veggies, seafood, beef, chicken, cheese, eggs, butter, yogurt, and deli) in total.
We got cable when I was in HS. If you never saw it, Jazzercise was a helluva thing. Better than anything we learned in biology class, but not as good as the things we learned in the back of my car.
Or watching scrambled HBO for the few seconds of green nudity.
I worked with a guy who was on the crew for Denise Austin’s workout show. Apparently she wasn’t too shy about changing outfits on set between recording segments.
Heh. That brings back memories. Our HS electronics teacher taught us about filters and we all built helical resonators to take the jamming out of HBO. Good and innocent times indeed. Kids had to work and be crafty to see some T&A. Now they can watch snuff porn on a big screen.
Ahh…the twenty minute workout. Aerobics for the male eyeballs.
When I was flying the Eastern Airlines shuttle between Boston and Newark back in the 60’s you didn’t even need a ticket, just run up and get on the plane. It ran hourly and at peak times they would roll out extra planes to accommodate everyone. You paid onboard, and for some perspective of inflation/dollar debasement the fare was $12.
“You paid onboard”? That’s wild, never knew about that.
I just remember in the 80’s when flying was actually fun, and being in an airport was a pleasant experience, if not exciting.
And,… I totally forgot today is the day before everything changed for the worst.