On... Mattie's iLand

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from a USB port…

Of course I packed my iPod for the plane.  Excited to be so hip.   Kind of like Ginger on Gilligan’s Island – with the most stylish accessories!  (Although, I’ve always fancied myself more like Mary Ann than Ginger…more the girl next door.)

Middle seat...jeez, how’d that happen?  ‘The Skipper’ was already giving the synopsis of our 'three hour tour' … complete with a bit of ‘rough water’, therefore we might not take off on time.   Once in my seat, with this Gilligan kick from the past on my brain, I couldn’t help but find the similarities between my seatmates, the crew and first mate.

‘Gilligan’ was on the window side, and ‘Mary Ann’ was on the other. She was
cute, very hip and young….maybe a bit of Ginger, too.  We all settled in. We coasted for a while waiting out the storms, then up and away, flying through the coastal waters in our Minnow. I dozed off and on for this part, and was awakened by the Skipper giving another forecast for the flight - some bumps, but Ft. Myers clear and sunny, 80 degrees.  Ahhhh, my own Gilligan’s Island, complete with palm trees, tiki huts, and tropical drinks with the little paper umbrellas (did you know that their purpose is to keep the hot sun off the ice cubes?).

Cruising at altitude, now, Mary Ann pulled something out of her pocket. A lime-green iPod Shuffle.  She popped in the white headphones, clipped the iPod coolly to her shirt, put her seatback in the fully-reclined position, shut her eyes and let the music take her. The last time I tried that, my iPod played one song and was finished – out of juice! So, for this trip, I was certain I had it completely charged and brought the charging unit with me, too…the Professor would be proud!

So, not to be out-hipped, I pulled my tangerine-orange iPod Shuffle out of it's quilted pouch and popped in the white headphones, clipped it coolly to my shirt, put my seatback in the fully-reclined position, shut my eyes and let the silence frustrate me. I played with the tiny controls to no avail - push, wait, push wait - until I was sufficiently embarrassed for no one but myself. I put it down.  Where’s the Professor when you need him? I looked around.  Gilligan and Mary Ann asleep, the Skipper busy at the wheel and no Professor in sight.  I was stranded in a middle seat wishing it was the ‘isle’.

If not for the courage of the fearless crew, my iPod would be lost! (pay attention…foreshadowing….)

When Mary Ann woke up, I asked her if there was a trick I might be missing for turning on my iPod.  I told her I couldn't get it to play, yet it had in the past, and it was completely charged. Gilligan continued to snore and was oblivious to my technical inadequacies. Only Mary Ann knew, and she would keep my secret….she was, after all, ‘Mary Ann’!

She popped in my white headphones, pushed the tiny dial once and smiled.  Then she handed it back to me.   I could hear the faint tunes of the islands (ok…it was the Beach Boys).  I wasn’t sure whether to be coy and apologetic, or to thank her profusely!  What did she do????  I must have shown this confusion on my face, because without a word from me, she said...."agghhh, technology!" as if she was a bit frustrated with technology herself...in all her 20 years.  Suddenly, my Ginger self-image morphed into Mrs. Howell --- all the style, not so hip.  Wonder if Gilligan will notice…

Once again, I popped in the white headphones, clipped my iPod coolly to my shirt, leaned into my fully-reclined seatback, shut my eyes, and let the music take me…the music of times before white, one-inch turntables and $5 trail mix on the plane.   Music of times when Ginger was young and the Minnow was lost, times so very reminiscent of the bucolic state of a desert island.  A place and a time that for the rest of my three hour tour, could be whatever I wanted them to be…even if it was just here in the middle seat….Mattie’s iSle!.

"Mattie"

06/20/07

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