That's what I like about the south in two parts

Yesterday as I was landing in Greensboro I encountered two demonstrations of the differences in the south from the rest of the country.

#1- There is a shine guy in the airport who has been there several years. Every time I go through the airport I try to get a shine. He works hard and is dedicated to giving good shines. We spoke about what he was going to do for Christmas (not the holidays but Christmas and New Years) and then about the economic situation in the country. He asked a question for which there is no good answer. He said that the last night he took his family out for dinner at Chevy's - and he wondered if the economy was so terrible why it was full. Good question.

This guy works hard at his trade. He is a keen observer of life as it passes by. And he certainly did not miss that at least part of the economic challenge we have at this point is self-induced - we've talked ourselves into a recession.

#2 - One of the perpetual problems for frequent flyers is lost items. Every flier has a set of stuff that you have with you in your seat. I have an iPod and a Kindle and earphones and my laptop. But in the last couple of years I have lost a couple of iPods because I leave them on the seat. A little more than a year ago I left a case with two iPods on my seat in San Francisco. When I discovered my error I had left the arrival gate and went immediately to the Red Carpet room. The agent there called the lost and found who, of course, did not answer the phone. He left a message and told me to call the next day. I did, three times, and never got a call back. Obviously, one of the cleaners on the plane or the flight attendants (this was at the end of the day) found the things and simply pocketed them. Contrast that with Greensboro. As I was leaving the security area, I heard my name being called out to go to the customer service desk. They asked had I left something on the plane. When I identified it (an iPod) they produced it. I really appreciated it!