When I was a kid, family vacations meant packing the 5 of us into the family car and heading . . . sometimes north to Canada for a fishing trip or sometimes south to the Carolinas for some sun. Either way, we drove. For hours. And hours.

So to entertain myself, I watched cars around us. At some point I decided to memorize the makes and models of the fronts and sides of cars. Of course, I could spot a Buick at a quarter mile away. Approaching Chevy? Yep! Olds? Nice. Pretty. It became something more than interest. I LOVED recognizing cars.My dad and brother enjoyed tinkering with cars and of course, my grandfather was an old fashioned mechanic. I was in good familial company. (To this day, I LOVE listening to CarTalk with Click and Clack on the car radio, and plan my schedule so that I am in my car at precisely that hour.)

Today, my focus on vehicles has shifted. We travel differently than when I was a kid. We fly. Since we live in CA, we aren’t going to make a 4-5 day drive across country to visit our families in the mid-west for fewer days than it takes to get there and back. So we fly.

What does this mean? I know 3 things.

I know the airlines by their tails.  Really, it’s not such a huge shift from car grilles to branded airplane tails. A geometric red and green means an Alitalia flight has just landed. A swooping bird within a circle is a Lufthansa flight taking off.

The second thing I know about travel is that I have come to know the hubs of the major airlines. Flying through Cincinnati? You’re on Delta, right? Stopping for a Philly Cheese Steak? Then at the airport, you’re likely to be on a  US Airways flight. Chicago or Dallas bound? Gotta be American Airlines. Transfer in Frankfort? Lufthansa.

And thirdly, I have become familiar with airline partners. Now, there’s usually no logic as to who is partnered with whom or why—and it really doesn’t matter. But if you leave Cincy on a Delta flight, it is probably AirFrance when you land in Europe. United? Well, United seems to have merged with a few other airlines in the US—Continental, USAirways. But across the ocean, depending on your destination, you’ll likely find yourself on Swiss, Lufthansa, or SpanAir.

So, as we approached the airport on Friday to pick up our friend, I saw her flight land. SwissAir. Red tail, white cross. She’s been through Zurich. . . after having passed through Chicago on American Airlines.

I utter these details to Emerson and he says without hesitation, “You are the same little girl that you were years ago, when you knew all the makes of cars.” He’s right. Only the times and ways have changed. Me? Not so much.

(Photos mostly from the internet, Thanks.)

Posted on June 12, 2011

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