In the early 1990s my father had just started working for a company in Orange County and so we got to fly out there six or seven times a year as one of the 'perks'. I almost caused much embarassment on one of my first trips through LAX at the age of 8. We were flying during the Gulf War and security was rather heightened. We had stocked up on those Super Soaker water pistol things at a Toys R'Us somewhere in the northern suburbs of LA and had packed these things in our hand luggage. We passed through the security checkpoint without issue and just as I was leaving I managed to blurt rather loudly, 'Daddy, they didn't see our guns'. My father still recalls the horror and was waiting for some big security guy to come running after us and give us a throw-down...for some unknown reason this didn't happen.

We laugh about it today but God knows that would have happened if this was post 9/11