Good story. When were "those days?", though? Was this in the 80's?

I remember my own empty plane experience - flying from Kansas City to Hays, via Great Bend. There was only one other passenger besides me! Now, this was a tiny prop jet with around 20 seats, so it surely didn't matter where we sat, but it was nice to experience having the plane all to ourselves. The pilots didn't bother to close the cockpit door (and this was the 2006 post 9/11 world!), and gave us a bit of a mini-lesson on how the airplane works (while they were flying!).