Yesterday, after I picked Jayla up from school, I had to get some gas and run to the bank...then to Target, of course :-). When we got to the bank, there were about 3 people standing in line to use the ATM. So we sat in the van for a few minutes waiting on the line to dwindle down. After a minute or so, another gentleman got in line. So I told Jayla that we'd better go ahead and get in line before someone else walks up.
We get out and took our place behind this tall man, fully clothed in his flight uniform. It was clear that he was some sort of military pilot.
Jayla absolutely LOVES planes and immediately noticed that he had planes on his uniform. She pointed at his arm and said...very loudly, "Mommy, he's a plane flyer man!". I said, "Yes, honey I see that, he's a pilot. But please don't point." Needless to say, the "flyer man" heard this little conversation and turned around and smiled at Jayla. He then asked her if she liked planes. She shyly said she did and started to hide behind me. A few seconds later, he turns back to her and asks if she has a favorite plane...not sure what he expected this 5 year old little girl to say, but he was a little shocked by her reply. Jayla belts out, "The C130!" The pilots eyes opened very wide and he said, "REALLY, now?" Then he says to me that it's normally little boys that know the different planes and he was impressed that a little girl knew. I told him that she became interested in planes after seeing the airshow last year.
Anyway, the line is moving slowly...as I'm sure you can tell. The pilot moves up a little, and he's next to use the ATM. Then he slowly turns back around, looks down at Jayla and says, "Hey, I'll tell you what...how bout you have this...", and he reaches across to his right shoulder and rips off one of his flight badges and hands it to Jayla. I think if that girl had smiled any bigger, her head would've been in 2 seperate pieces. She was SOO excited! "Mom, how cool is THIS?" she says to me. I was pretty impressed too. Both of us stood there for a moment and admired the patch...that happened to have a C130 on it.
The pilot walked up and took care of his ATM business then started to walk off. Jayla then yells again, "Thank you Mister!" He smiled, told us to have a nice day and walked away.
I love when stuff like this happens. Especially as a mother, it's nice to know that there are still some nice people in the world. Those people who can still be "charmed" by a cute little kid, and not have thoughts of taking advantage of them or hurting them in some way. It also shows to the kids, that not all grown ups are bad or mean. With all that you hear on the news these days, moments like this are very welcomed, albeit far and few between.
10 years ago
