Little Rock airport abuzz on gray winter day

As quartet harmonizes, travelers begin, end their journeys

Lamont Wood waits next to a Christmas tree Friday afternoon for his flight to Kansas City, Mo., at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/ Adams Field in Little Rock. Wood, who is training at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, was traveling home for the holidays.
Lamont Wood waits next to a Christmas tree Friday afternoon for his flight to Kansas City, Mo., at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/ Adams Field in Little Rock. Wood, who is training at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, was traveling home for the holidays.

An airport is a good place to be whenever it's deep, dark December in the soul. Or gloomy, gray December like Friday.

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Travelers make their way through the baggage claim area Friday afternoon at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field as the Bob Boyd Sounds band performs.

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Deborah Burkett of Houston pauses Friday to shoot a photo of Christmas trees as she travel through Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

Because there was joy at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, on the eve of Christmas Eve, as deplaning passengers embraced family and emplaning passengers began the journey to loved ones near (San Antonio) and far (Sao Paulo).

All of the above played out to a musical soundtrack, courtesy of the Bob Boyd Sounds, a local and longstanding quartet.

Marc Baker would surely appreciate the live music when he got off his slightly late airplane. He's a pianist in New York, his mother, Alice Baker of El Dorado, said. The flight was about 30 minutes late.

"Could be better, but it's been far worse," she said.

Back in El Dorado, Marc Baker can play the piano he learned on. His favorite Christmas song? Alice Baker pondered, and looked at her daughter, Kim Britt.

"I was trying to think of that long-winded one," Alice Baker said, but couldn't.

As for long-winded, Bob Boyd's quartet was booked from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

"We can do three hours of Christmas music and not repeat ourselves," Boyd said. "We make a lot of music for four guys."

El Dorado to Little Rock isn't a bad drive, Alice Baker said.

"If you get here early enough, you can enjoy Starbucks coffee," which she was doing.

Aline DeConti and Marco Gabriel had only a few minutes to catch their flight to Atlanta and then Sao Paulo to visit her family. She's the Brazilian. He's a Frenchman. They met in the great melting pot that is Little Rock.

And then she realized Friday was their wedding anniversary -- three months. Off they went, exuberantly, on a 14-hour trip to Sao Paulo, where the forecast for Christmas Day is a high of 87 and a low of 71. It's summer in Sao Paulo, a city of about 12 million in Brazil's south.

Matt West was one passenger hard to miss. His blue and white Christmas tie brightened up the place. He was headed to San Antonio to see his four children, ages 17 to 8. Happy, but also sad, since his visit will be only for five days.

As for his ties, he has 40 -- Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, "you name it. People don't like to see me in a regular tie."

Lamont Wood took it all in as he leaned against a bag full of his Air Force uniforms. Wood was headed home to Kansas City. He's been at Little Rock Air Force Base since June and will graduate at the end of January from training as a C-130 pilot. He's a first lieutenant and will soon be in the Missouri Air National Guard.

Wood came several hours early to the airport and was killing time.

"I like airports," he said, "I like airplanes, and I like watching people. So I thought, why not hang out."

Not much makes better watching than a soldier coming home for Christmas, as did Pfc. Kevin Couch of the United States Army. Down he came on the escalator, tall and lean, to meet his mother, Bea Hindman of Fairfield Bay, and sister Kelli Couch of Tulsa.

Stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, Couch has been in the Army for 14 months. The experience, he said, was "50-50," and he grinned.

What he missed most, Couch said, was family. Kelli Couch hugged and corrected him: "His sister."

The family's parting, such sweet sorrow, will be soon. Kevin Couch flies out, and back to the Army, on Tuesday.

Metro on 12/24/2016

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