Monday, May 07, 2012

A Story About Ted

Several years ago I was flying to a friend's wedding and waiting at a counter in the airport to speak with someone about some flight issue or something.

Embedded in the counter was a TV and on it was a sort of screensaver.  I was flying United, and their cheaper airline is called Ted.  So they had two airplanes on the TV, one with the United logo, one with the Ted logo.  One plane was facing one direction and was close up, the other was facing the other direction and was in the distance.  Then they would zoom off in their respective directions and then reappear in each other's spot.  Etc.

Basically it was meant to look like the planes were flying in a circle.

A little boy was also watching the screensaver.

Eventually, because I was still waiting and a little bored and the kid was cute, I did what I tend to do around kids. Engage them in conversation.

"They're flying in a circle," I said.

"No."

"Yes, they are.  See there's Ted," I pointed to the Ted plane in the background.  The planes whooshed off the screen.  I think, but I am not 100% sure, that I made a whooshing sound when this happened.  "And now there's Ted!"  I pointed to Ted now in the foreground.

The kid was silent.  Just watching the screen.

So I kept talking and pointing:  "There's Ted. . . and there's Ted!  There's Ted again, and there's Ted! . . ."  And you pretty much get the point.

And still the boy said nothing, just stared at the screen.

Eventually the woman at the counter was ready to help me, so we started talking and then, loudly, totally unexpectedly a little voice from beside me:

"And there's Steve!"




This moment makes me laugh every time I think about it.  Maybe it was the boy's dad's reaction - he had been silently observing our interaction the whole time - just sort of bewildered and amused saying, "Steve?"

Maybe it's the sheer absurdity of where the heck did he get Steve from.

But for whatever reason, it was one of those little moments that happen in life that I am very grateful for. :) 

What are some of your Ted stories??







2 comments:

Woods said...

Such a cute real-life story! Something short and sweet to read for the day.

I can't think of any Ted stories of my own to share, but if I do think of one, I'll definitely post it. ; )

Scarlett said...

i love those types of moments, that ones that make you smile in remembrance.

I tried thinking of some of my own, because I know that I have had them, but none came to mind. Then, I was in the kitchen and on the counter was a large watermelon. This particular watermelon just so happened to have a black blender top set on it and it looked remarkably like a top hat. thought that that was a perfect little Ted moment because it made me smile :)

To top-hatted watermelon, the world over!