> I brought a foil wrapped breakfast burrito through security
> This was years before 9/11
Given that Airport security wasn't implemented until after (and because of) 9/11, how would you have passed through security with a burrito before 9/11?
As others said, security definitely existed, typically in the form of metal detectors and x ray scans. Planes had been hijacked since the 70s and that's when it started. 9/11 just ramped up security to very high levels.