Last night as Anne and I flew back to Los Angeles from Vancouver, we met a 28 year old young man sitting opposite us with a delightful personality, who proudly showed us a picture on his smart phone of his 4 1/2 month old baby son.
We encouraged him to show that picture to others around us, which he proudly did, and everyone hit it off well, the baby picture and the words of the proud father setting a lovely tone.
But what I didn't notice was this young man apparently kept ordering drinks for himself and by the latter part of the flight, he had become loud and obnoxious, as he made ridiculous comments and laughed raucously at them. When the woman sitting behind him learned she had missed her connection because our flight was so late, his voice boomed out, "you're screwed."
Fortunately, when he tried to get more alcohol, the flight attendant politely cut him off.
Throughout my life I've seen ugly spectacles like this and knew how to handle it, by being a calming influence, knowing he would remember little or nothing about his terrible behavior the next day. But he diminished the quality of the plane ride for those around him and hopefully he was unable to rent a car so he wouldn't endanger other lives.
I felt bad for his adorable baby son and the baby's mother, realizing this young man is very likely an alcoholic and I hope he gets help and gets it soon.
Dick
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