February 26
Twenty-five years ago today, we were the proud parents of one son. By the end of the day, we were the proud parents of two. The second child, who we would name Dillon, wasn’t due for another two months, but he apparently had other ideas. He was so anxious to get here, he actually tried to come even a month before that but some very clever doctors prevented that from happening.
It was not the easiest pregnancy (Are any of them easy?). After he was nearly 3 months early, Donna ended up on bed rest in the hospital in Berkeley, bored but stable. When I had to go to Los Angeles for work, my mother flew out from Connecticut to watch our older son Jay. He was not yet three, so she had no time to be bored. I wasn’t bored either. The job in Los Angeles was an iced tea commercial starring Dick Butkus, Bubba Smith, and Bob Uecker.
As usual, I was staying with friends in the Hollywood Hills where cell service was terrible at best. But I wasn’t worried. Even though years before, our older child Jay had come a month early, the doctors seemed to have everything under control. Then, despite the bad cell service, in the middle of the night, miraculously my phone rang. It was Donna from the hospital. Her water had just broken. There’d be no iced tea commercial for me. The first flight to Oakland was at 5:30am and I was now booked on it.
I tried to get a little sleep but before I knew it, I was headed for the airport. It’s a drive I could do blindfolded now (naturally I’m not suggesting I’d ever attempt to drive blindfolded). But back then I was less sure of the route to the Hertz rental car lot. The combination of nerves, excitement, and a lack of sleep produced a wrong turn somewhere and GPS was still years from being invented.
By the time I finally found the Hertz lot, I knew I’d be cutting it close. I turned in the keys and anxiously waited for the bus to the terminal. And waited. And waited. Then I waited some more. As the minutes ticked away, I began to worry I’d miss my flight and possibly the birth of our second child. I was also worried about the birth itself, as pushing a kid out two months early is not exactly following the directions on the box (oh, if only there were directions and a box).
Back at Hertz, with no bus in sight, I explained my situation to the woman at the counter. “Surely there was someone who could run me over to the terminal,” I said. But my pleas were ignored. Literally ignored. Not only was there not one word of sympathy or understanding from this woman, there were no words at all. More minutes ticked away and again I begged for someone, anyone, to get me to the terminal. But again I was ignored. Finally, when my stress level was at its peak, a bus appeared. I quickly boarded and made a mental note to write a letter to Hertz.
At the Southwest Airlines counter, my luck began to change. I had only minutes to get to the gate, but unlike at Hertz, when the woman at the counter heard my story, she flew into action, grabbed the phone and called the gate to let them know I was coming. Then she looked at me and told me to run. Here it’s tempting to say I made like OJ Simpson at LAX but only readers of a certain advanced age (like mine) will remember those commercials which were for, ironically, Hertz. The point is I ran and I made the flight.
Upon landing in Oakland, I went straight to the hospital, arriving about 8am, and two hours after that, Dillon arrived. Despite being two months early, he was healthy and the doctor assured us he would be fine. Now, twenty-five years later, he’s more than fine. I often think he came two months early because he was already plotting out his endlessly busy days and he wanted to get a head start.
Over the years I’ve flown on Southwest Airlines many times and I’ve never forgotten how nice they were all those years ago. And though I’ve rented from Hertz occasionally, they are never my first choice. I haven’t forgotten them either.
As for Dillon, after graduating from the University of Oregon, he moved to Portland, where he makes his living as both a photographer and personal trainer.
You can see his photography work here:
And his training website here:
https://www.vibestraining.com/
And twenty-five years later, we are still the proud parents of two amazing boys.
Happy Birthday Dillon!
