Airport security after 9-11

It was absolutely amazing how low airfares were last week when our previous plans were abruptly cancelled as a response to the day terrorists hijacked planes to attack America and we had to re-book. In spite of all that, I still wanted to attend my nephew’s wedding without having to make a 24 hour drive across the country. So in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, my husband logged into the Internet and did the impossible: he found next day, round trip airline tickets to Rochester, N.Y. for two for a total of $370.
As we packed, I debated including a new cross stitch project to while away the hours waiting for planes and flying in them. The catch was that my favorite scissors for snipping thread are now considered dangerous weapons. I found a tiny pair of inexpensive, scissors that fold up to the size of a quarter which I had not used for a long time. If the baggage inspectors confiscated them as a potential danger, I would use a cardboard nail file to saw off embroidery floss.
We arrived at the airport two and a half hours early and waited 45 minutes for the check-in counter to open.
We showed our picture IDs, assured the agent we really did want to carry on all three bags we had tightly packed to avoid the battle of lost luggage and headed for the metal detectors and security guards. Only the camera bag was opened for a close inspection.
Because it was a small plane, our carry-ons were taken from us on the tarmac just before we climbed the steps up into the plane. Three of the four planes we flew were empty enough to give everyone a window seat.
The fourth was filled with the overflow of flights that had been canceled.
Airports were devoid of customers. When we switched planes in Charlotte, N.C., I walked by as a man talking on the phone said, “The airplanes are empty and the airport is dead.” My husband said he saw few if any business men at the airports and it looked to him as if there were more airline employees than customers.
In New York we drove to and from my nephew’s wedding, visited relatives and played tourist. In the car I clipped embroidery floss with my unfolded scissors, counted and stitched. I tossed the half finished project and unfolded scissors into my back pack.
After the guard determined that I was still the person pictured on my ID, I tossed my bag on the conveyer belt and walked through the metal detector. When the security personnel stopped me, I prepared for another camera bag inspection. He ignored the camera bag and pointed at my back pack. The unfolded scissors had shown up on the scanner, not as a circle with a center line, but as a tiny pointed weapon.
He apologetically handed me a receipt for the scissors, “when will you be flying back through?”
“I won’t be, but don’t worry about it. They cost me very little. I was surprised I got to keep them all the way here.”Minus the scissors I settled in one of the hundreds of empty seats whereI counted and stitched away another couple hours waiting for a plane. I finished the project yesterday.