Chill commercial flight and Game Boy ambience—Gen X kids were often left home alone — we were also occasionally thrust unattended onto planes to navigate Laguardia or Atlanta alone.
Back in my day, we didn't have the whole internet in hand for a commercial flight. The most exciting things to do were staring out the window for a few hours, possibly picking up the Airfone, and hoping a friend would accept the pricey call. "I'm on a plane. Can you believe it?!"
Once I had to travel from Augusta to grandma's house in Katama so the parents could hit up Acapulco. The options for entertainment were to look out the window, admire the emergency procedures pamphlet, or poke my sister with the fake pilot pin the hostess handed me.
Technology improved. Soon, I had my own AM/FM personal stereo, which I could use to figure out where the plane was by listening to the FM stations I could pick up.
Later, there was the Game Boy, which made air travel less mundane and terrifying. It actually did that for a lot of decently lit life scenarios. I loved that thing.
Grab an original Game Boy from a reseller and store your phone for the flight. You're traveling like a 1990s person who got ditched by their parents!
PS: This would be my list of cartridges (not Tetris) to bring.
1 Kwirk
2 Boxxle
5 Tennis