Getting To The Other Side Of The Ocean

I first crossed the ocean on a jet plane a year before jet lag was invented.  My first plane flight, from New York to Africa, was in 1965; the term "jet lag" was coined in 1966.

When the plane landed in Africa, I bounded off of it, ready to spend the next two years of my life there.  I was not sure what my living situation would be, I was not sure of what my teaching job would be like, but I was energized.

I next crossed the ocean from Hamburg to New York.

A mix-up in the Hamburg Airport put me in first class, compliments of Lufthansa.  They seated me next to Miss German-America.  First class was delightful; they even gave me a complimentary long-stem red rose, which I saved.  I gave it to my mother, after I bounded off the plane, energized and eager to see the US after two years away.

Then it was time to go back to Africa.  This meant flying from New York to London, having a long layover, and then on to Africa.  British Airways was putting me up at a hotel for the long layover.  The plane landed at Heathrow, I arrived at the hotel, and that is when it hit me.  Jet lag.

At first, I did not recognize it as jet lag.  I recognized it as grogginess, a sense of a large weight bearing down on me.  I dragged myself to the hotel restaurant for lunch.  I worried about being too groggy to catch the next leg of my flight, but I did catch the flight, and got back to Africa.

Then I read a magazine article that talked about how to combat jet lag.  The focus was on what to do before you before you got on the plane.  You must confuse your body, so that when you got off the plane, your body would gladly accept  the daily rhythm in the new time zone.

I tried it out: the plan was to have heavy greasy fatty food for all 3 meals one day, then light meals of vegetables and fruits the next, then grease the next day, and then vegetables and then get on the plane.  The plan seemed to work well, or maybe I thought it worked well because it gave me a good excuse to eat greasy breakfasts before going on vacation.

Then the literature changed.  

I read a magazine article about combatting jet lag; it said that the focus should be on what to do after you get off the plane.  You must not hide in a hotel room and sleep off the flight.  You must socialize, which will make your body accept the daily rhythm in the new time zone.

I stopped confusing my body with food.  When I got to a destination, I socialized and fell in with the local rhythm.  The new plan worked pretty well, and I avoided jet lag.

However, I was wondering if the new plan would work for my longest flight ever: 24 hours from Boston to Singapore.  The flight included a stopover at LAX in Los Angeles, and a dangerous stopover at Narita in Tokyo.  

The stopover in Tokyo was dangerous because there were benches in the international waiting room.  I had spent many hours sitting vertical in an airplane seat, fantasizing about being horizontal.  But I knew if I lay down on a bench in Narita Airport, I would fall fast asleep and miss the last leg of my journey.

I arrived in Singapore after 24 hours.  The taxi driver taking me to my hotel asked where I had flown from.  I said I had come from the east coast of the United States.

The taxi driver said, "Oh, you have traveled a long way.  This means you must meet some local people.  I know a lovely lady who would like to socialize with you"

I didn't take the taxi driver up on his offer.  But I was tempted to ask him if he had read the same magazine article I had about what people should do when they get off an airplane.


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A nice 3-minute YouTube video showing the lyrics to a song called "Jet Lag".  This is a cover sung by some young women with a guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDdgUX2cNQw

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com