A Harried Trip to Philadelphia

It started late one evening back in the 1990s.  I was working in Jolly Hall during the supper hour.  At that time, several of the residents ate "family style" in Central Kitchen and I was supervising that group.  Around 6:15 p. m., Glenn S. came into the dining room and said, "Sox, I need you to get a car and go to the Philadelphia Airport to pick up a resident who is flying in from Florida with airline assistance".  She had been visiting family and for whatever reason, she was being sent back early.

I asked what time her flight was due and he said 8:00. (p. m.)   I said,"Glenn, I'll never make it there by 9:00 even if I am lucky".  He replied "Do the best you can and that he would have Charlene S. go with me".  I ran, got a car, picked up Charlene, and took off.  To this day, I'll never know how I did not get caught for speeding. 

We got to the airport and I drove into Short Term Parking - $5.00 for the first 15 minutes and a dollar a minute for over 15 minutes.  It was after 8:30 when we ran in not knowing what to expect or where she would be.  By luck, the flight was delayed and arrived shortly.  When the resident came off  of the plane, she had no escort.  Lucky we were there to meet her.  She was not in good shape and had a very heavy diaper and had her menses.  

Charlene took her to a bathroom to try and clean her up as best as she could.  We had no clean clothing.  While cleaning her up, Charlene turned her back for just a second.  A mother and her daughter were standing at the sink and the resident tried to stick her finger up the nose of the daughter.  

Needless to say, the mother was upset.  I don't know how Charlene talked her way out of this but she came out and we headed for the door. We got to the car and it cost me $47.00 to get out of the parking lot.

We headed for home and just outside of Philadelphia, where a number of roads crossed over and under traffic, we saw that traffic was moving slowly on a lane above us.  Charlene said, "Sox, there's a Laurelton van on the side of the road".  I pulled over and ran up the bank to see what had happened.  It was Shirley K. and Dan W. coming home with residents from a ball game.  They told me that there was a motorcycle wreck and a girl was lying on the road.  There were some Army reservists stopped to see if they could help and they thought they would soon be on their way.  So we left.  

Later we heard, that the police and the ambulance were coming and the motorcycle driver was trying to get the girl up.  She was hurt and one of the reservists tried to stop him.  The cycle driver hit the reservist on the head with his helmet, jumped on the bike, took off and left the girl on the road.  We came on home.

By SOX