*Just for the record, I was never a blonde baby. The girl in the photo above is not me. FYI.
The below-mentioned flight is not the only one on which I cried.
The story of our flight back to New York from a vacation in Malta has become a family favorite.
It was 1981.
I was a toddler.
I was a spoiled toddler.
Like many toddlers I was becoming agitated on the very long trans-Atlantic flight.
Being a spoiled brat, I had my specific diva-like demands. In spite of getting everything that I wanted (the flight attendants were supposedly doting on me...yah, the nerd was THAT CUTE as a baby!)--chilled milk, olives, and canned mandarin segments--I wanted something else.........
I, Sabila Khan, wanted to see the plane flying from the outside.
Yes, as a toddler, I demanded to be taken outside of the flying plane so that I could see exactly what it looked like in transit.
When no one made it happen, I threw what I'd like to think of as one of the mightiest tantrums thrown by a kid in the history of kids.
I cried and cried and cried. I held my breath. I screamed at the top of my lungs. When a male flight attendant, concerned that I'd cry myself sick, brought me a cup of water ("Water for the doll," he'd announced to my exhausted mother), I kicked him, spilling the water on the front of his shirt and pants. I kicked a female flight attendant who tried to console me.
I cried until I couldn't cry anymore.
I cried until I wore my mom, my dad, my brothers and myself out.
I cried until I bloody well realized that no one was going to show me the plane flying from the outside.
And so, I went to sleep, perhaps a little wiser.....
6 comments:
first of all....SOOO CUTE.
second: you put me as a link on your blog. awwwwwwwww shucks. thanks.
It was my pleasure, dear.
You're a fox!
no *you* are...hence the "She is a fox" link. haha.
the first time i sat on airplane, back in 1978, i was screaming and shouting and, frankly, shitting bricks. i screamed about not wanting to sit in the big one and instead sitting in the smaller one that was 'parked' in the distance. this was apparently when karachi's airport didn't have terminals that led into the airplane. passengers had to, instead, walk through the tarmac and up the steps into the airplane.
my tune changed, however, when we finally entered the airplane and, through my dying tears, i exclaimed: "hey. this isn't that big from the inside."
Pakistani airports still don't have terminals leading into the airplane. They have vans that meet passengers on the tarmac. It's all a bit distressing.
You and I would've gotten along as babies.
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