New Year's day, January 1, 2000. The start of a new year and a new century. History will remember many things about that big day like Y2K and the world panic over computers failing. For me, the 21st Century will be indelibly marked by it's start at the Montego Bay airport. My sister, brother in law, and I left Bonaire heading back to the reality of life in the states. Our flight had a stop in Montego Bay on it's route to Atlanta. As you might have guessed, Air Jamaica was not running it's new year's day flights on time and our one hour stop turned into six hours. All flights were delayed and the airport was overflowing with people. We stood patiently until three seats became available. Just as we sat down, the seat next to me opened and strange looking, bizarre smelling older man sat down next to me with a large plastic bag. Out of the bag he produced a metal hospital style bedpan and a large bread fruit! No, the bedpan was not clean and yes, he did peel and eat the entire bread fruit while he sat next to me for what seemed like another century. Try as I might, I could not convince my brother in law to swap seats with me. I guess Gloria Steinem would condemn me for starting the 21st Century with only this thought in my head..... "The man should have to sit next to crazy person eating anything from a bedpan!!!!"
It's true, convictions of equality for the sexes are shot to hell when there's a crazy person sitting next to me eating from a dirty bedpan.
