One of the many ways we keep our Southwest Culture and SPIRIT alive is by telling, and re-telling, stories of the events that have defined us as a Company. There are many venues for telling such stories.
- FLY classes (Freedom, LUV & You) that all new Employees go through
- Rocking Chair events where a group of longtime Employees sit around (in rocking chairs) and talk about their lives at Southwest
- Halloween skits, which almost always lightheartedly relive events from long ago, and not so long ago (And wait 'til you see some of the video from a Southwest Halloween. We go completely Nuts for Halloween.)
- A fantastic Puppet Show that our People Department presents at special New Hire luncheons (I’ll have to show you some of that one of these days.)
- And just about any gathering of two or more current or former Southwest Employees
You probably already know about many of the stories that made headlines.
- Our years of court battles just to get the right to fly
- The $13 Fare War in 1973 when we proclaimed “Nobody’s Going to Shoot Southwest Airlines Out of the Sky for a Lousy $13″ (Winning that confrontation with Braniff led to our first profitability.)
- Malice in Dallas, when Herb saved lots of money and got a ton of free publicity by arm wrestling for the rights to the “Just Plane Smart” slogan
- And most recently, our successful Wright is Wrong campaign to lift the outdated Wright Amendment restrictions at Love Field
But there are hundreds … thousands … of smaller, more-personal stories inside Southwest that are just as important to our Culture and SPIRIT, and I recently became aware of another venue where many of these stories live and thrive.
There is a group of retired Employees who meets about once a quarter at The Landing (our headquarters cafeteria). I heard they used to call themselves Old LUVers, but that was quickly changed to just LUVers. They come from all over the United States just to be together for a few hours … to catch up on what’s new and reminisce about old times. So I asked them if I could set up my camcorder, record their LUV Stories, and share them with YOU!
This first story is from Buddy Mitchell, Southwest Employee #946, retired. It illustrates how important a simple “thank you” can be. It can be something that makes a difference forever!
Comments
That is so nice.
I do complaints too all day and it is so special when someone comes alone and said gee its great what you do!
Thanks, Bernard! I think yours is the first post I've seen from Australia :-)
I'm sure Buddy appreciates it, too.
Thanks, & great post! I remember reading those stories in my book "Nuts!" I've read that book so many times some of the pages have fallen out, so I certainly need to tape them back in! I could buy another copy, but two of my dear friends who work for the Company in TUL autographed it for me, so I can't (& won't) throw it away!
Can you please hire me next year? :)
Interesting fact of the day: George Eastman invented the Kodak.
I used to work for Southwest in MCO and we had to move to a "non-Southwest" city. I took the early retirement and thought I had made the right choice, but every once in awhile I'll see something like a great commercial during a football game, a Southwest plane when I fly in to a "Southwest city," or I'll hear a story like this from Buddy and I'll get a little twinge of doubt about the choice I made. It really is a great company full of great people and I miss it dearly.
Carolyn & JoeÃ
Buddy,
Thank you for reminding me of all the good things we were a part of at Southwest. What a great way to make a living---having the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life. You are in my prayers.
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