"Alison. You'll never guess who I saw today, think dark, handsome, Boston." No way. You didn't! "Yes. Mark Wahlberg came through my line today."
My uncle Matthew works as a line service technician which means that every morning from Saturday to Wednesday, he wakes up at four in the morning, eats breakfast and brews himself some well-needed coffee. Then he starts the hour long drive south to the international airport in Chicago, IL where he gets his flight line for the day. Then, throughout the day he dedicates his time to catering to those airplanes in the line; cleaning them, moving them, and largely servicing the individuals on the plane. It is his job to keep things running smoothly with each aircraft in his flight line until it is their time to depart, where he says sayonara to them and welcomes the next plane that replaces their spot. Which doesn't sound so awful if you are personally catering to the Mark Wahlberg -swoon- and others of course.
Matthew taking a break at work.
He has fun, he told me so.
The airport my uncle works for can also be known as a Fixed Base Operator, or FBO which is basically a gas station for aircrafts. They provide hangers, maintenance, and general servicing, such as inflating tires with Nitrogen, replenishing oxygen, catering, airplane sales, flight school, lavatory service, charter operations, and de-icing the airplanes when the season permits. Anybody who has the funds can rent a plane for a lot of money to get around the crowd and fly on your own time, which is why there are a lot of very important people that travel through the airport. Important people means always having to be discrete and professional on the tarmac and elsewhere. Important people also mean many large corporation businessmen (and women) and plenty others are well known celebrities.
The list of celeb sightings from my uncle is honestly really impressive, ranging from Mark Wahlberg of course, to Katy Perry to Bill and Hilary Clinton, to Morgan Freeman, to Arnold Schwarzenegger, to Prince (Rest his soul). He texted me the list and boy did it go on, the amount of scrolling was unreal. Not only were the people that he met impressive, but the stories that he had were grade-a, although some were less than appropriate for the internet.
He talked about how deceivingly tall Magic Johnson is.
"Magic Johnson is a lot taller in person. Even walking on tippy-toes and outstretched arms, his suit still barely touched the ground while I walked over to his plane...and of course you can't fold them over your arm because you just can't...so I walked (like a weirdo) over to his plane to give him his laundry."
Granted, my uncle is just a little taller than myself (5'2 1/2") but plus arm length is a pretty spectacular length for a suit. There are other stories of him meeting and talking to stars like Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher or having to chase down Lady Gaga's taxi to give her the purse she left in his chauffeur vehicle; I asked him who his favorite celebrity was and his best moment while on the job, and he surprisingly he answered with, "being able to -briefly- hang out with the Foo Fighters" while he drove them to and fro.
While it's all fun and amazing meeting new people, especially those who are well known, he said that the best part of his job is "moving the planes" and "knowing that you're helping people" have an amazing flight experience while they are there and feel like they are important. Matthew has been working with planes since 2001 and he is still learning new things everyday. He told me that he absolutely encourages anyone who is interested in aviation to try out work as a line service technician, even if they know very little about aircraft in the first place.
So if you see this man at an airport near you, Chicagoians, give him a wave and a smile, he's a pretty nice guy!
