A Day of Clear Skies

At 6:15 a.m., Judy Langford pulls her little black carry-on bag and attached briefcase down the back steps of the Evanston, Ill., condominium she shares with her husband, Bob Thompson, the pastor at nearby Lake Street Church. Coffee in hand, Thompson waves goodbye. Mornings like this have long been part of the family routine. In the alley, driver James Nesbitt opens the trunk of his red Lincoln Town Car, which easily swallows the baggage.

The big monthly meeting would be taking place as usual, so Langford is facing a four-day week at the Washington headquarters of her employer, the Center for the Study of Social Policy. It’s a big place--part think tank, part social service advocate funded by major foundations.

As a senior fellow, Langford initiates and implements projects “having an impact on the most disadvantaged people.” That can cover a broad area--whether figuring out ways to use day-care centers to help prevent child abuse or helping local social welfare agencies get together to share ideas.

Once a month, the project managers meet for a few days at the headquarters on I Street and report on their progress. At other times, Langford may be running around the country to work with community leaders in poor areas.

At any rate, Langford travels a lot, and when it came time for another routine visit to the office March 4, she was ready. She booked a ticket on United Airlines’ 8:15 a.m. Flight 604, from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, through the airline’s Internet site. She reserved a ride from J&J; Limousine, an Evanston car service. And she packed. Carefully.

The terrorist attacks hardly made a dent in Langford’s routine. Almost as soon as airliners were flying again, she was riding them and feeling no fear.

“I’ve always been sort of fatalistic that way,” she says. In fact, she arrived at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport the day it reopened after being closed because of the attacks. “The terminal was almost totally empty. United employees stood there and applauded us when we came out of the jet way.”

The attacks mainly affected the way she handles luggage: “I do pay more attention to not ever checking a bag if I can help it. I pack a little differently. If I’m going to be gone four days, I try to find jackets and scarves that will go with the same pair of black slacks. I only bring one pair of shoes--that’s the key.”

On the way to O’Hare, Langford and driver Nesbitt talk about how their children are doing. Nesbitt also tells her that business lately has been good.

“Since Sept. 11, I’m back to about 90% of what I had before,” he says. “The days afterwards, I was down to 75%. The business people kept on traveling, but the vacationers just stopped.”

At O’Hare, after making some tentative arrangements for a Thursday evening pickup, she marches off to join the long, snaking security line.

A lot of the travelers appear dressed for business, and many have their notebook computers out of their cases by the time the line nears the X-ray machines. Langford often travels without her laptop--especially when she is bound for headquarters, which has all the latest communications gear. Now that security can take so long, Langford wants nothing to impede her progress any more than necessary, and sometimes the presence of electronic equipment triggers a thorough inspection.

But today it goes smoothly. Langford is striding up the B concourse only 17 minutes after arriving at the terminal door. She has time for a yogurt and orange juice at United’s Red Carpet Club, a sprawling gray expanse filled with travelers working cell phones and laptops.

Langford picks up her boarding pass and eats her breakfast. Soon she is back on the concourse. She buys a Chicago Tribune and a New York Times at a newsstand and pulls her trolley toward the gate.

Flights to Washington these days get an extra dose of security. A man with a badge inspects Langford’s boarding pass and photo ID. She takes a few more steps, and a security inspector motions her aside; she is asked to put her cases on the table for a search. Meanwhile, another inspector tells her to spread her arms while he runs a metal detector over her gray-and-black outfit.

This is a “selective inspection.” Not every Washington-bound passenger has to undergo one. Langford asks the woman pawing through her suitcase, “Why did you select me?”

“Well, you were walking toward me. You were right here,” the inspector replies. She holds up a tiny black object. “What’s this?” “Those are tweezers,” Langford informs her. “I’ve been carrying those with me for years.”

“I don’t know how they let you,” the inspector says. “I’ll have to keep it.”

Langford shrugs and boards the plane.

It’s not quite full this Monday. Sometimes she sees the same people on the morning Washington flight. It’s like a regular commute. Once she was squeezed into a middle seat between U.S. Reps. Henry J. Hyde and Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois. (“They were both quite nice.”)

Today it’s all strange faces, so she reads the papers--including the sports sections, to get a leg up on the office March Madness pool--and feels certain that the plane will get there in an hour and 20 minutes as promised.

“One thing that is very different since Sept. 11,” she says, “is that now there’s a reasonable number of airplanes flying. You’re on time! You’re basically on time. And people tell you what’s going on.”

Flight 604 arrives at 10:57, two minutes ahead of schedule. Without a glance at baggage claim, Langford joins the taxi line and boards one in less than five minutes. Twelve minutes later she is standing in front of her office building.

She’ll be about 25 minutes late for her 11 a.m. meeting with the other project managers, but that was to be expected. Getting up at 5a.m. for an 8:15 flight is early enough. Besides, the way things tend to go these days, she could have been much later.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Chicago to Washington

Judy Langford

Age: 51

Title: Public policy advocate

Years on the road: 15

Annual trips pre-9/11: 50

Annual trips post-9/11: No change

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Airport Report Card

Best

Chicago’s O’Hare, Atlanta, San Francisco and Ronald Reagan Washington National: “They have decent food available and a lot of shops. I travel so much that I have to buy most gifts in airports.”

Worst

Columbia, S.C.: “The security people go way overboard. They even look in the trunks of every car.”