Who among us hasn’t had tickets for a concert or a game or a something that we haven’t been able to unload? They’re burning a hole in your pocket, you want to make a profit, would settle for making your money back and eventually accept taking a small loss and, deep inside, it bothers you for the first quarter, few innings or half.

Show of hands? … Thought so.

And who among us has had $18,000 in ducats in our pockets? Show of hands? … Didn’t think so. Pity, then, poor Rick Rock and his not-so-Sweet Sixteen experience.

“We were told that morning that we needed to decide by 10 a.m. how many tickets we wanted,” Watson said. “We relied on the credibility of the travel agency to provide the charter.”

So, the airport purchased 125 tickets for the trip and planned to charter a 150-seat aircraft, Watson said.

He said the agency guaranteed a plane would be available for the trip and there were “several witnesses” at the meeting with the travel agency in which the verbal agreement was allegedly made.

But as soon as the tickets were in hand, the travel agency told the airport it couldn’t get an aircraft, Watson said.

“There we were at the 11th hour with more than $18,000 in tickets and no plane,” Watson said.