Fear of heights is not always inherited. I picked up Randy, an interesting man, probably in his 40s. He told me how he rarely traveled anywhere that required a plane flight. Since he was a small child, he couldn’t tolerate heights. He blamed it on his dad. He is probably right.
His father was not happy that his son was scared. Randy said, “You remember when Michael Jackson got in trouble for holding his son outside a balcony window? My dad did that to me from a fire escape. I think he thought it would train me to overcome my fear. It did the opposite.”
Randy’s dad was a painter. He had a reputation for speed when painting a house. Randy said, “Dad would hang as far to the left of his ladder, hammer a large nail into the house, then reach the far right and hammer another nail. He would swing back and forth between those nails to paint. He had to come down from his ladder far less than the other painters. No fear!”
Randy told me another story about riding the glass elevators in the Sears Tower in Chicago. Those elevators can reach a top speed of 1,600 feet per minute, taking visitors to the Skydeck on the 103rdfloor in just 60 seconds. Randy said he had to crawl out of the elevator on his hands and knees. He never looked outward from the observation deck.
He told me later during our ride that his dad got his talent when he was young. One of his first jobs was working as a tobacco hanger. I had no idea what that meant.
Randy told me that his dad worked on a tobacco farm. The growers built large warehouses several stories high with racks to dry the harvested leaves. He climbed like a monkey, placing the tobacco throughout the facility.
I love it when I pick up someone who loves to talk as much as I do. Randy was one of these folks. He continued to speak about his livelihood. He flips houses. Sometimes, he buys lots and builds homes from scratch. He told me a story about a realtor with a similar phone number. He started getting calls from buyers interested in buying his homes. However, the homes weren’t his.
It turned out that the realtor’s advertiser had accidentally used Randy’s number. After several phone calls, he contacted the realtor. She insisted that he was mistaken. Eventually, she purchased a billboard with his phone number prominently displayed. Only after he began offering to build homes for her customers did she finally correct the problem.
As we approached the destination, I asked Randy, “How do you get to destinations that require a plane ride?”
He said that he and his wife want to travel to Italy someday. His last plane ride still sticks in his mind, though. Before takeoff, the pilot warned the passengers that they may experience some unusual turbulence during their flight. They bounced around so much that Randy thought the plane would come apart. Upon landing, he overheard the pilot telling a flight attendant that he had never seen such turbulence. He admitted that he was concerned when he couldn’t find a path to avoid it.
Randy told me they are considering a cruise. Another friend told him the Atlantic Ocean can be just as treacherous as any airline flight. He’s not sure he’ll ever go there.
***
This story reminded me of a business trip to Toronto years ago. Our sales manager and I were visiting the CN Tower and standing on the observation deck’s glass floor. He told me he feared heights and would not approach the windows. I told him to look down. He realized he was standing on the see-through floor and dove to the non-glass section of the floor. After picking himself up, he told me to meet him in the lobby.
***
(Please stay in touch. I’ll be releasing my book soon. I’ll let you know as soon as I have the information. I appreciate your support!)
Thanks, and God Bless,
Tommy