ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A local man arrived at the airport this morning cutting it a little fine for his liking in terms of time.

Darcy Rollins told The Advocate this afternoon via telephone that he’d checked-in on his phone and wasn’t carrying any checked luggage.

“The only thing that stood between me and the Virgin Lounge was security,” he said.

As it was at the height of the morning rush, all six security lanes at the Remienko Memorial Airport were open and the lines snaked back almost to the bag drop desks.

He was at a critical juncture in his trip, Darcy was. It was critical because the line he picked needed to be one that moved quickly.

“You see, I wasn’t there late enough to get ushered through the business class line and I wasn’t earlier enough to waste time,” he said.

“So I had to pick the right line.”

He looked from the back of each line for the amount of Baby Boomers in each one.

Their terrified, confused faces. Their sausage fingers clutching their printed itineraries. The loud clanging of bangles and rustling of beads. The attempts to strike up a conversation with the security staff.

“All things I didn’t have time for,” said Darcy.

He picked a line with three up the front, the rest looked like business travellers like him.

The first Boomer thought the ‘take all laptops out of your bag’ rule didn’t apply to him. Then he tried to walk through the metal detector with a belt on. His partner kicked up a fuss having to take her shoes off. She glared at the security worker and ask him if she looked like a terrorist. Her bangles set the metal detector off. The third one through forgot to take his Glock 23 out of his hand luggage and tried to laugh it off as six AFP officers surrounded him. Security then closed the lane just as Darcy was about to put his MacBook down on the conveyor.

He joined another cue at the back behind a Probus group.

More to come.

