Arrivals Gate & Public Affection

I went to the airport yesterday to pick up a friend. I got there early so I waited in the cell phone waiting parking lot. It was a sunny day… good for sitting still and reading my book. But I miss the old days and the choice to wait at the gate… to watch as dear ones step off of a plane, through the gate, and into what awaits them on this side of the journey… eyes scanning the crowd, looking for their loved ones, the ones they are slightly afraid to see, the longing that someone they know will be there waiting. And the embraces and unions… so passionately expressed… emotions so close to the surface… so public.

Things are often (obviously not always) more reserved further away from the plane… time to go to the bathroom, anticipate the meeting, walk, gather yourself… etc.

Can you still meet someone directly at the gate in other countries?

Ani DiFranco sings of the beauty of the (old) Arrivals Gate:

gonna go out
to the arrivals gate at the airport
and sit there all day
watch people reuniting

public affection so exciting
it even makes airports ok
watching children run
with their arms outstretched
just to throw those arms
around their grandpa’s neck
watching lovers plant kisses
old men to their misses
at their arrivals gate

watching a mother
with a mother’s smile
don’t tell me to move
i just wanna sit here for a while
i have determined
it’s a sure cure for cancer
watching excitement turn family dogs
into dancers
at the arrivals gate

i got me a white bread sandwich
with some shredded lettuce
and i got me a ringside view
for my quaint little fetish

i just wanna drain my pink little heart
of all its malice
and kick back for the afternoon
in this fluorescent palace

everybody’s in a hurry
here in purgatory
except for me
i’m where i need to be

at the arrivals gate