Jack Ingram Flies Very Friendly Skies

What do you do if you forget to bring your ID to the airport? If you're Jack Ingram, you charm your way through airport security as best you can.

Not too long ago Ingram headed for the airport for a 5:45 AM flight to Kansas City from his home in Austin, Texas. The singer was up and moving at 4:00 AM and felt pretty good about arriving at the airport early, only to make a stressful discovery.

"I got this sinking feeling when I realized that I forgot my wallet!" Ingram says. "I knew I didn't have time to go home and make it back in time for the flight. I decided to forge ahead and see what happens when you don't have a wallet."

Ingram says when he arrived at the ticket counter, he started the usual routine that he goes through when he's done something really stupid. As he walked up to the counter, the attendant asked how he was and he replied, "I'm fine but how are you?" Then she asked if she could help him and Jack replied, "Oh yes! You can help me like you wouldn't believe!"

Just then, a young child approached Ingram to tell him what a huge fan he was. The ticket agent asked if she should know him and Ingram said, "Well, no, but you would if you listened to country music or if I had my ID." The agent was kind enough to offer to look him up on the Internet and said she would try to help him get through security.

"To make a long story short, she had to mark up my boarding pass with red ink and sent me with the head of security off to the metal detectors. When I got there, they searched me up and down and in between, asked me such probing questions as, 'Who else lives in your house?' and 'What kind of car do you drive?' And guess what? I passed! They let me through! I made it to Kansas City!"

The moral to the story, Ingram says, is "If you ever forget your ID and wallet and need to fly, remember this story. It's going to take you a long time in security and you have to be really nice to the ticket agent and everyone else, but you don't need to be a recording artist or anything else, just keep your cool and remember who you live with!"

Of course that's not the end of the story. Ingram still had no ID for his return trip to Austin, nor did he have money for food or to pay for his parking when he got back home. Luckily he made it through security again and found another sympathetic ear at Starbucks, where the clerk accepted his American Express card because he could recite the number by heart. "So at least I was well fed for my return flight home, but the flight sat on the tarmac connecting in Houston for five hours because we were in an ice storm, so my excitement was short-lived. I finally made it home by 4:30 AM, but only after I managed to get 20 bucks from a fan working the parking garage at the Austin airport -- because I still had no money and I needed it to get my truck out! What a day!"