The Daily

December 18, 2017

This is the house we used to live in
This is the place I used to know
This is the house we used to live in
Where I felt I could always go

Travel Day. The afternoon the lights went out in Georgia’s Hartsfield International Airport.

Pat Dinizio of the Smithereens died last week and I spent a lot of time listening to their catalog and sharing stories with friends about our mutual interest in the band. A friend from Atlanta told the story of seeing them play at The Varsity, a local legend and hot dog stand there. He said he ran into Pat at the bathroom urinals (which makes sense because there wouldn’t be a backstage at a fast food joint). They didn’t speak, because you don’t do that in the men’s bathroom.

So when I was passing through Hartsfield on my way to a mediation in Charleston, SC, I stopped at the Varsity on the F concourse to get a slaw dog. This picture was taken within minutes of a complete power shutdown. I was jerking a soda from the fountain when the lights went out. I figured power would come right back up. I was wrong. For the next twenty four hours, I was a part of an epic airport shutdown at the “busiest airport in the world”.