My first aviation job was throwing bags for Midway/Midway Connection. We had been in bankruptcy for a while, and a deal with Northwest to aquire us had just fallen thru, and everyone was wondering what the next step was. That night, dispatch called our ops room and said "hey, don't let the crew or the overnighter leave the airport until they call us". So, crew comes in, calls dispatch, then tells us "they want us to fly the plane back to Springfield tonight". We say "what about our morning originator?" They say "They didnt say - they just told us to ferry the aircraft back tonight". So we call the Manager and tell him this, and then clean up and go home for the night.

Next morning I go into work and the Station manager has already been busy - all logos have been taken off the walls, anything to indicate the airline ever existed was gone from the terminal. I got someone from United to let me into the back - no one from Midway would answer the door - and like someone else described, it was the last day of school. Everyone figured we would never get paid again (and I didn't), so we were all just picking what we wanted to take in exchange.