Expedited Bus Service 

Captain Matt Ferguson/Captain Tex Searle 

In those days it was the stewardess's responsibility to 
carry her own commissary kit: a small, suitcase type bag 
filled with instant soup, coffee, tea, airsick pills, and lots 
of Doublemint chewing gum to help the passengers 
relieve the pressure in their ears from the constant pres­ 
sure changes of flying in unpressurized equipment. 

On this occasion, as we prepared to board our flight 
at Riverton, Wyoming, Captain Matt Ferguson noticed 
our stew's commissary kit still sitting by the boarding 
gate. He asked an agent to slip it in the rear cargo com- 
partment without drawing the attention of the stew. 
After departure the stew rushed into the cockpit, and in 
a distraught voice informed us she had left her kit at the 
boarding gate. 

Captain Ferguson reassuringly told her not to fret, 
that we would radio back to Riverton and have the com­ 
missary kit forwarded to Rock Springs by bus and it 
would be waiting there upon our arrival. 

After the stew had departed the cockpit, I was asked 
to call ahead to Rock Springs and advise the agent that 
our stew's commissary kit was in the rear cargo compart­ 
ment. On our arrival he was to remove it from the cargo 
compartment, open the main airstair door, hand it to 
our stewardess, and tell her a bus had brought it down 
from Riverton. 

At Rock Springs everything proceeded as planned. 
Handing the kit to the relieved stewardess, the agent car­ 
ried the prank further by advising her that a cab had 
been hired to carry her kit to the airport from the bus 
station and there would be a $2.00 charge for the cab 
fare. She thanked him for his trouble and, not having the 
$2.00 with her, she said she would co-mail (company 
mail) it to him. 

Two days later when I was back in Rock Springs, the 
agent stepped into the cockpit with a smile on his face 
and asked, "What am I to do with this?" In his hand was 
the $2.00 the stew had promised and a note thanking 
him again for his trouble. 

But this wasn't the end. Several days later, the stew 
was again in Riverton and the agent who had slipped her 
kit in the rear cargo compartment advised her that she 
owed him $2.00. She said, "You think I'm stupid? I've 
already paid $2.00 to the agent in Rock Springs. Why do 
I have to pay you?" 

He informed her the bus firm had charged him $2.00 
to carry the kit to Rock Springs for her to pick up there. 
She said, "I forgot about the bus." 

All the money she had divvied over was returned to 
her via co-mail, and to my knowledge, no one ever did 
have the mettle to inform her it was all a prank and that 
airplanes have managed to outrun ground transportation 
vehicles since 1903. 

-Excerpted from THE GOLDEN YEARS OF FLYING,
By Tex Searle with his permission, pages 130-132.