The Rerouted Skytress

Last week I deleted a story from my “Ice Ice Baby” blog post. It was more about melting snow than ice anyway. But the story got me thinking about something I hadn’t thought about in years. The Country Store in the Cincinnati Airport. The Country Store was located on A Concourse by the Credit Union. A very convenient location if you ask me. There was, also, a store located on the B Concourse near the small crew lounge. Another very convenient location if you ask me. The Country Store had other locations in other airports, such as, Columbus, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana. The employees even dressed in 1930’s country store attire. It was a full country store experience. Sadly, The Country Store is no longer located in these airports. I guess we airline crews didn’t eat enough of The Country Store’s glorious popcorn to keep them in business. Believe me, we definitely tried.

The Country Store was known for it’s delectable freshly-popped popcorn. It was also known for selling an incredibly ginormous bag of popcorn. Yes, some people actually bought the paper lunch-bag size of popcorn every now and then. But, they were usually the exception. I affectionately called them “the samplers”. The rest of the world bought the 24 ounce clear bag of popcorn. As you know, popcorn doesn’t weigh much….so that was A LOT of popcorn! The people that bought the 24 ounce bag were serious connoisseurs of The Country Store popcorn. When I was based in Cincinnati I would bring the big bag of popcorn home to my family in St. Louis. My family fell in love with the popcorn when I was a child. No trip to the airport would be complete without purchasing a big bag of popcorn. I’ll admit, it was cumbersome to carry the popcorn home to St. Louis on the airplane. But, seeing my Dad’s face light up at the sight of the popcorn made it all worthwhile. Needless to say, I chuckled when I saw passengers walking through the airport with their big bag of The Country Store popcorn. I knew their family and friends would be thrilled when they walked through the door, too. The Country Store popcorn had this magical effect on people. I truly believe they sprinkled magic dust, instead of salt, on the kernels while it popped. Our pilots apparently believed in magic. They were notorious for buying the big bag of popcorn and sharing it with the crew. Fortunately, The Country Store kindly provided extra brown paper snack bags for the crew. This way everyone could have their own individual bag of popcorn from the big bag. I know from personal experience crews would shriek with delight whenever the pilots shared their popcorn. Well, at least I did!

The Country Store offered more than the luscious popcorn. It was The Country Store after all! The store sold an assortment of quirky little items. There were dish towels, bottle openers, wind-up chattering teeth, wax candles and a plethora of interesting tchotchkes. In addition, the store sold Mad Libs books, ball and Jacks games, wooden paddle ball games and wooden thumb puppets. Remember the Wooly Willy Original Magnetic Hair Toy? I do. I always played with it when I was in the store. What can I say. I am a child at heart. I loved using the red magic wand to drag the magnetic shavings to create hair, beards and eyebrows on the bald man. Of course, I was partial to The County Store’s wooden airplanes, too. This shouldn’t surprise you. After all….I am in aviation. I was, also, enamored with wooden train whistles. They truly sounded like a train “was a coming” when you blew into them. But, my favorite toy was the wooden spinning tops. I bought many of these to entertain my nieces. I, however, was just as entertained. Yes, The Country Store was a filled with creative toys for kids and kids at heart. Thank goodness I have the heart of a kid.

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What kid doesn’t love candy? Fortunately, The Country Store was well- stocked with an assortment of mouth watering candy. Each little wooden bin held a sweet delight. There were Mary Jane’s, Goetze’s Caramel Creams, Sugar Daddy’s, Candy Button Dots, Candy Necklaces, Lemon Heads, Butter Scotch Candy’s, Jawbreakers, Salt Rock Candy, Rainbow Whirly Lollipops, and a wide variety of flavored stick candy…just to name a few. I could definitely name more. After all, I have the heart of a child that adores candy! Our pilots, also, have the hearts of candy loving children. Our pilots loved buying the Atomic Fireballs. They bought them by the paper sack full. They were always quick to offer the crew these hard candies, too. Everyone made it a personal challenge to suck on the fireballs long enough for the fire to go out. The pilots didn’t take offense when someone spit the candy out long before this point though. They usually laughed when someone gave up on the challenge. Most of us swore to never eat an Atomic Fireball ever again. However, everyone knew the next time an Atomic Fireball was offered again, everyone would accept the challenge once more. We couldn’t help ourselves. Hey, did I mention we have hearts of candy loving children?

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The candy most people overlooked were the Necco Wafers. Both the assorted colored Necco Wafers and the chocolate Necco Wafers. I didn’t overlook this candy, though. My boyfriend at the time, Captain Pilot didn’t either. We actually became slightly obsessed with the Necco wafers. Especially, the chocolate Neccos. I bought the colored Necco Wafers one day on a lark. Captain Pilot and I scrutinized each color and flavor. We had our own personal favorites. Then one day Captain Pilot went to buy more Neccos at The Country Store. That day they only had the chocolate flavored Neccos. So, he bought them. And our world changed forever! We couldn’t get enough of them. Every chance we had we ran to The Country Store to buy more. At one point The Country Store completely ran out of the chocolate flavored Neccos. On both concourses! It was devastating for us. At some point in our obsession someone at The Country Store decided to put the Neccos in a basket near the register. Yes, the employees were making it convenient for us to run in and out of the store in between flights to make a quick chocolate Necco purchase. Sadly, it also made it more convenient for us to see the empty basket, as well. Captain Pilot and I would have daily updates on the chocolate Neccos situation. We became brazen in our pursuit of the candy. We no longer did a quick walk-by. No, we purposefully walked into the store to actually inquire about the chocolate Necco supply status. I had to laugh the day I went into The Country Store on the B Concourse. I informed the sales clerk I would love to purchase some chocolate Neccos. But, I could see they were still not in stock. The salesman was shocked another person had come in to the store to specifically purchase the chocolate Neccos. He told me a pilot had just come in a few minutes prior looking for the candy. I confidently told the sales clerk I knew it was my boyfriend. Come on, what were the chances it was someone else addicted to the candy? Of course, later that night Captain Pilot confirmed that he was indeed the chocolate Necco inquiring pilot. We laughed that maybe our Necco addiction was getting out of hand.

The story I was going to write about last week ultimately was more about the chocolate Necco Wafers. And not so much about the weather. Let me explain. I was flying with Captain Pilot one day to South Bend, Indiana. We laughed when we saw we were going to be on the same crew. Yes. We never purposely tried to fly together. It just worked out this way for us every now and then. This particular day big, wet snowflakes started to fall unexpectedly from the sky. It was as if we were in a snow globe and someone had shook it vigorously. Captain Pilot went to inquire about getting de-iced. The unexpected snow caught everyone in Cincinnati off guard. The de-icing crews scrambled to get the trucks in place to de-ice all the departing airplanes. Captain Pilot informed us our flight had been issued a flight delay until we could get de-iced. Unfazed, Captain Pilot told me he was going to head to The Country Store to look for some chocolate Necco Wafers. Minutes later Captain Pilot was back on the airplane to inform me The Country Store was still out of the chocolate Necco Wafers. Captain Pilot may not have brought any Necco Wafers back with him. However, he did bring the blazing sun back with him. The weather outside was now in complete contrast to the earlier snowy conditions. Outside my window sheets of snow were sliding off the airplane wings. Chunks of snow from the airplane roof were sliding past my window. I watched in amazement as the airplane parked next to us shed it’s heavy snow, too. Captain Pilot observed the same thing out the windows as we talked. After a short time had passed, Captain Pilot told me he was going to go outside to check the airplane. From inside the airplane I could see the wings were now completely clear of snow. Captain Pilot came back a few minutes later and informed us we no longer needed to be de-iced. Mother Nature had de-iced us. So, we received our new paperwork, got our passengers boarded and we flew off to South Bend.

When we parked at the gate in South Bend, Captain Pilot deplaned to get our new paperwork and to look around the concourse. A few minutes later he entered the plane holding a brown paper bag. He smiled a sheepish smile and handed it to me. The bag was filled with chocolate Necco Wafers! Neither one of us knew the South Bend airport had The Country Store. Happily, the South Bend passengers were not obsessed with chocolate Necco Wafers like we were. Hip Hip Hooray!We had a new chocolate Necco supply station.

Not long after the South Bend discovery, we were in a drugstore in Dayton. Captain Pilot needed to pick some items up on the way to the house. We conveniently walked down the candy aisle to get to the back of the store. Just by chance I looked down. There I spied not only the colored Necco Wafers, but, I spied the chocolate Necco Wafers, too. I also saw the price of the candy. For the price of one roll of candy at The Country Store, we could get four rolls of candy at the drugstore. We were gobsmacked! The unproductive airport hunt for Necco Wafers at The Country Store was now over. We realized could easily buy our candy at the drugstore for a fraction of the price. Captain Pilot and I no longer bought our Neccos at The Country Store. Ironically, The Country Stores at the airport in Cincinnati closed not long after our drugstore discovery. Now, I cannot confirm our lack of buying the Necco Wafers caused the demise of The Country Store. But, wouldn’t you agree ….it is a peculiar coincidence.

I still buy Necco Wafers every once in awhile. I like to keep some in candy jars in the basement in case someone needs extra energy to play air hockey or pool. Yes, Necco Wafers are readily available to everyone in my house. Sadly, The Country Store popcorn is not. Oh, if I could have jars in my basement filled with The Country Store popcorn,…I’d be in popcorn Heaven. I truly believe if The Country Store were to reappear in airports they would thrive. They would thrive with a new generation of Skytreses, Skyters and pilots that had never tasted the most delectable popcorn ever popped. And quite possibly, another Skytress and her Captain Pilot boyfriend would discover the chocolate Necco Wafers. And just like Captain Pilot and me, they might become obsessed with obtaining them and eating them. Well, they will be obsessed until they discover them at their local drugstore. Then they will sadly discover they, too, have been chocolate Necco price gouged at The Country Store. Oh well, if they are smart, they will always go back for the popcorn.