This really happened.  Forget the name of this blog for a second, because this story is entirely true.

I was boarding an airplane back in 2002 (give or take) to visit my parents in Arizona…I lived in California at the time.  And I hate the your-side-then-my-side-then-your-side exit rules, and more importantly I hate those assholes that ignore the unspoken rules and just jump up and try to exit before everyone in front of them.

To avoid having to deal with these issues I usually try to score the seat in the very last row at the window.  When you sit there you can just let all of the people in front of you exit the plane while you sit and read a little.  You all end up waiting at the baggage claim together anyway.

So I’m in my ideal seat – last row at the window – and this flight is filling up quickly.  A woman comes and sits down on the aisle seat of my row and introduces herself.  We’ll call her “Joan” for the sake of this story.

Joan is clearly a little intoxicated and is very interested in talking with me.  I tell Joan where I’m headed, what I do for a living, and what book I’m reading.

“This book is called Fast Food Nation,” I told her.

She was really interested in the book, and asked me to tell her a few things from the story.  So I shared.  “Well, I just read that in the year 2000, Americans spent more on fast food than they did on higher education.”

“You are shitting me,” she said as she dug into her purse to take out a piece of paper and pen.  I think she knew she was too drunk to remember this conversation in the morning.

This story really could stop here.  But it got even stranger.

While me and drunk Joan were talking, the plan was getting full and the only open seat was right between Joan and me.  Everyone is sitting.  All of the luggage is securely stowed in the overhead bins.  And a woman runs onto the plane, and is forced to sit between me and Joan.

We are all cordial.  The tardy lady, the drunk lady, and me.  Joan introduces me to the tardy lady and tells her what I do for a living, my age, and where I’m headed.  At the time I didn’t think that it was strange that Joan gave very little information about herself.

Then Joan told the tardy lady, “Mike here is reading a book about fast food.”

And the tardy lady said, “Really?  My father is Carl Karcher.  He founded Carl’s Jr. and Hardees.”

What the hell kind of coincidence is that?  The first chapter of Fast Food Nation is all about this lady’s father and there is even a family photo!

Before we left the plane, Carl’s daughter gave us a coupon for a free hamburger and told us that she always uses these coupons as tips.  Cheap.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Simple Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.