Were we
too kind
to the Poles?
Norway’s undying
gratitude
to Shetland
With one final
shove, the bin
clicked shut
The tribe:
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Alasdair McKillop reflects on his recent interview with novelist Alan Bissett
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Rubbish in the river Clyde at the Broomielaw
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
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With one final
shove, the bin
clicked shut
Hook in America 5
I waited on edge, suppressing a groan, waiting for something to split or break – already imagining the consequences, the inevitable delays, missing my Glasgow flight. But with one final shove, the bin clicked shut.
The consequences in the case of an aircraft with a full complement of travellers are both obvious and inevitable: the bins are jammed and crammed to bursting point. One way of dealing with this problem is for an announcement to be made just before take-off suggesting to passengers that their carry-on luggage can be placed in the hold, without charge, with the proviso that it can be collected on arrival on the ramp outside the aircraft thus avoiding the delay of waiting at baggage reclaim.
Inside the aircraft the problem remains. Sitting in my seat waiting to leave Fort Myers for Newark and my connecting flight to Glasgow, I watched in horror as across the aisle yet another bulging case (with wheels) was trying to be stowed into an already full locker. A powerful, sweating man pushed and heaved, but the wheels of his case remained jutting out. He tried to force the lid shut again and again.
I waited on edge, suppressing a groan, waiting for something to split or break – already imagining the consequences, the inevitable delays, missing my Glasgow flight. But with one final shove, the bin clicked shut. I was not the only one to sigh with relief. Seconds later a woman decides she has to recover something from her bag in the bin. The flight attendant remonstrates with her, advising her to leave well alone. But she insists and reopens the locker. Of course she is quite incapable of closing it. The attendant refuses to help. A burly passenger steps up and goes through the whole routine again: repeated almighty attempts to bang the lid shut. I hardly dared to look. But finally click shut it did. I made it to Newark on time.
Now the New Yorker cover with the man trying to stow his car comes completely alive for me. Comically but pointedly it hits the spot perfectly. This is flying today in the USA.
Andrew Hook is a former professor of English literature at
Glasgow University
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