It took me years to accept “Love Actually” onto my Christmas movie list. It did and it’s been watched already for the 2022 Christmas campaign.
The movie opens and closes at Heathrow airport. It shows people in all different relationships meeting at the airport. No matter how sad and gloomy life might seem, the arrival gate at an airport is where people greet someone they love. The airport is the best example to see that love is actually all around.
In Chicago we have a saying, “if youse want to show somebody dat youse love dem, pick dem up at Ohare!”
I use to pick my dad up at O’Hare often when he traveled for business. He’d call on a pay phone when he landed and I’d drive up from Oak Park and pick him up at the Rosemont CTA station. He perfected the timing of him getting through O’hare and me driving from the house.
In October of 2000 I went to pick up a new girlfriend at O’Hare on a Saturday night. Pre 9/11 so I walked up to the gate. Me being of German and English blood, I was there very early, very early.
So I sat at the gate, waiting and waiting….. and waiting. It was a simple flight between Minneapolis and Chicago. Delayed and delayed….. and delayed.
Finally my flip phone rang and it was my new girlfriend. She and two other girls got kicked off the plane for being too drunk. They had a rugby match and social against Minneapolis and drank too much after the game.
So I went back on Sunday morning to Midway airport and picked her up.
OMG it was everyone else’s fault but my new girlfriend. The rugby team, the airline, the airport, the hotel that was full…. It wasn’t the fact that she over indulged.
Red Flag!
When I dropped her off at home her father was upset. At the rugby team, the airline, the airport and the hotel that ended up finding room for his princess. Dad was an enabler!
Red Flag!
My new girlfriend was asked to leave the rugby team! Who gets kicked off a rugby team for drinking too much? THEY saw the red flag.
I never saw the red flag, but luckily I have three children that love me. I’m fortunate I didn’t see the writing on the wall or I wouldn’t have a George, a Fritz and my princess, Hazel. Who I don’t enable!
The next week I had breakfast with Don Shepley at our joint in Oak Park. I told him the story that you just read. He saw the red flags. He saw the writing on the wall.
“Run for the hills Moose! This one is going to be a problem. And another thing son, Don’t date a squirter that doesn’t swallow!”
Only my dad would add that kind of color to a breakfast conversation.
That is my “Love Actually” story.
Pick your dad up at the airport and end up stopping at “Gene and Jude’s” on the way home. Pick up your new girlfriend at the airport and end up in divorce court eighteen years later.
Next Christmas movie, “The Family Stone.”
Enjoy this glorious last Saturday in November.
If you are over thirty-five don’t climb a ladder to hang lights today. Get a kid to do it…. But today is the day to hang those lights!
Big win for USA yesterday, Big loss for England…. Nil/Nil.
