"Walking in Memphis”

Firstly, a very big thank you to everyone who read and responded to my last post about the Dark Side of the Aviation Industry.?

Now, having retired from full time employment, I have been asked, by a number of people, to write about some of the enjoyable, humorous or serious moments encountered, around the world, during my career. Some of those moments are best left tucked away in my memory but equally, many can be shared with a larger audience. So, I will be posting some of those moments over the next few months.?

The blogs will be written at random, rather than in any particular order.

The first moment I am going to recall was in Memphis, Tennessee where I was fortunate to be able to spend a long weekend between two work events in Toronto and New York City. ?The weekend was a great success but ended most unusually.

Before pressing on with the Memphis recollection though, please allow me some literary license, to share a bit about the build up to the Memphis weekend.

I was in Toronto for a few days, working on the sale of a couple of CRJs.?? It was my first and my only visit ever to Toronto.? It struck me that if you are in Toronto, you’ve got to visit Niagara Falls; so I did. I found it stunning. It is one of the few places in the world that I have been to (and I’ve been to a lot of places) where it lived up to and beyondwhat I was expecting.? If you get the chance – go there!

Now, on to Memphis.

I arrived in Memphis on a Thursday evening and made it to my hotel, The Peabody, around 5.00pm.? The lobby was packed, packed beyond belief if, like me, you had never been to or heard of The Peabody Hotel.

In the centre of the lobby is an impressive water fountain which, from 11.00am to 5.00pm each day, hosts real live ducks happily swimming around it.?? I discovered that the ducks come down in the hotel elevator, from their pond on the hotel’s rooftop, at 11.00am every day, then waddle from the elevator to the water fountain, jump in and spend the day there. Around 5.00pm the ducks reverse the journey; waddle back to the elevator and go back to the rooftop for the night. ?Ducks in the lobby draws the crowds, hence why, at 5.00pm every day the lobby is packed with a zillion young kids and their parents. If you are going to Memphis and staying at the Peabody (which I would recommend), check-in earlier than five o’clock to watch the duck parade.

I was in Memphis for a long weekend; the first day (Friday) to be taken on a tour of Memphis (Graceland, Sun Studio, the Lorraine Motel, Beale Street and the rest) courtesy of Kerry Sterk, who sad to say, I have lost contact with since but will now go on a mission to reestablish contact with her. ?

The second day (Saturday) courtesy of Dave Sutton (then at FedEx, now retired) I spent the day at an annual PGA golf tour event, sponsored by Fedex.? ?As a well below average, but keen golfer, watching professionals at work is always enjoyable. The current elite of the golfing world were probably at infant school at the time but I did see Tiger Woods when he was in his prime.

To finish off the two marvellous days with Kerry and Dave, the three of us went out for dinner on Saturday night. At dinner and by pure chance, I was introduced to the Mayor of Memphis although, I struggled to remember his name, even overnight. I blamed the flow of wine over dinner. I was dropped off back at the Peabody after the meal and hit the sack sometime well past midnight.

I was out for dead or at least I was, until someone rang my room doorbell at about 6.30 am. I tried to ignore it but whoever was pushing the doorbell just kept on pushing.? I gave in; I stumbled out of bed and looked through the small eye glass that are in most hotel bedrooms doors.

Despite being bleary eyed, even I could see that at the other side of the door was an attractive young lady.? Assuming (wrongly) that she was a member of the hotel staff, I opened the door.?

“Hi there sir, you rang for me!”

“Er, no I didn’t”

“Yes youuu did”

“No I didn’t”

“Yes youuu did sir”

“No I didn’t”

“Yes youuu did”

But then, my new best friend stepped to one side and took a second look at the room number on the door.

“Gee sir, I’m really sorry but I’ve got the wrong room number”.

There was a bag hanging from the room door with a newspaper in it. The young lady calmly took the bag off the door handle, handed it to me, smiled and said:

“I’m really sorry to have bothered you sir, now you have a nice day”, gave me her best smile and walked off.

As I closed the bedroom door, I was still in a post-alcohol daze and was convinced I had just been spoofed by some comic TV show.? I made a token search of my room looking for hidden cameras or the like but found nothing (of course). I got back into bed still wondering what the heck was that all about but did not get back to sleep again.

I was out of the hotel by 9.00am, en route to New York, so missed the ducks that morning.

Memphis. A great city and a great weekend with a surprising, if not expected end to it. I whistle the “Walking in Memphis” tune whenever I remember my visit or read about something happening in the city.

If you get the chance, go to Memphis.

Mike Skinner

Next time – what happens when your aircraft gets hijacked en route from Khartoum to Baghdad?

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