During the 1980s, I got to fly almost all over the USA; it was a (welcome) job requirement. When traveling from one coast to the other, I usually transited through O’Hare airport in Chicago.
I remember the first time I experienced the “tunnel of lights” between the B and C concourses. Instead of dragging my suitcase on a numbing people mover confined within drab concrete walls, I found myself transported through a luminous wonderland: bright waves of multicolor neon tubes undulating from the ceiling while complimentary glass blocks lit up the walls. A rainbow of colors cycled rhythmically to the tune of Rhapsody in Blue. What a beautiful way to conjugate art and practicality.
Thirty years later, I always look forward to landing at a C gate. Michael Hayden’s The Sky’s The Limit art installation is familiar, yet still exciting. I feel like a little kid enjoying a two-minute ride in Disneyland: a spring in my step, a smile on my face, and peace on my mind.
TIME TRAVEL
Tick, tock. On Sunday Rick will spring forward the hands of the grandfather’s clock in the living room. This twice-a-year ritual is a touch more ceremonial than my resetting the car clock: I’m not required to pause for the Westminster chimes at each quarter…
While in Paris on a Sunday afternoon in October, I nearly missed my train because I briefly forgot that we change our clocks three weeks earlier than they do. Daylight Savings Time is just not a traveler’s friend.
I’m sure my grandpa René never missed his train. He worked for the French railroads where punctuality was the foremost qualification. He was issued an official Régulateur pocket watch. The engraved guilloche on the brass case is quite ornate; the dial is marked with Roman numerals and the image of a steam locomotive; the crystal is not even scratched.
Timepieces made a hundred years ago were built to last a lifetime. Or maybe two. René’s watch still works perfectly. Tick, tock.
Vocabulary
La guilloche: engraved pattern on metal