Confessions of a flight attendant from the 1980s

Flight attendant climbs into luggage compartment 1:12 (CNN) — “I came of age at the same time as the jet,” says Ann Hood, American novelist and New York Times bestselling author, whose latest book “Fly Girl” is a memoir of her adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant, right at the end of the Golden Age of air travel.
As a child growing up in Virginia, she witnessed the first flight of the Boeing 707 that ushered in the era of airliners and saw Dulles Airport being built. At age 11, after moving with her family to her native Rhode Island, she read a book in 1964 on how to become a flight attendant and made up her mind. “Even though she was very sexist, she seduced me because she talked about having a job that allows you to see the world and I thought, well, that could work.” Ann Hood, American novelist and New York Times bestselling author, whose latest book “Fly Girl” is a memoir of her adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. When she graduated from college in 1978, Hood began submitting job applications to airlines. “I think 1978 was a really interesting year, because a lot of the women I went to college with had one foot in the old ideas and stereotypes, and the other foot in the future. It was a somewhat confusing time for young women.” . “Flight attendant” was a newly coined term, a gender-neutral enhancement of “stewardess” and “air stewardess,” and airline industry deregulation was just around the corner, ready to stir the dust. But for the most part, flying was still glamorous and sophisticated and flight attendants were still “beautiful and sexy ornaments,” as Hood puts it, even though they were already fighting for women’s rights and against discrimination. The stereotype of miniskirt-clad flight attendants flirting with male passengers still endured, popularized by books like “Coffee, tea, or me? The uninhibited memoirs of two airline stewardesses,” published as a true account of two flight attendants in 1967 , but which was later revealed to be written by Donald Bain, a public relations executive for American Airlines. Weight limits Some of the worst requirements to be hired as a flight attendant, such as age restrictions and job loss in case of marriage or childbirth, had already been eliminated, but others remained. The most shocking, perhaps, was the fact that women had to maintain their weight at the time of hiring. “All the airlines would send out a table with your application, you’d look at your maximum height and weight and if you didn’t fit into that, they wouldn’t even interview you,” says Hood. “But once you were booked, at least in TWA, you couldn’t go up to that maximum weight. You had to stay at the weight you were booked at, which in my case was about 15 pounds under my maximum weight.” “My roommate got fired for this. The really terrible thing about this, other than what she did to women, is that this restriction wasn’t lifted until the ’90s.” Hood was one of 560 flight attendants, out of 14,000 applicants, hired in 1978 by TWA, then a large airline, acquired by American Airlines in 2001. The job began with a few days of intense training in Kansas City, where the flight attendants Flight cadets learned everything from the names of aircraft parts to emergency medical procedures, as well as the safety protocols of seven different aircraft. The list included the queen of the skies, the Boeing 747. “It was a bit scary, because it was so big…and the stairs, the spiral stairs that led to first class and you had to go up and down not infrequently Hood says. “I kept thinking: don’t trip. Eventually I got used to it.” Slicing Steak Hood’s favorite plane was a Lockheed L-1-11 TriStar. Credit: Christopher Deahr / Moment Editorial / Flickr Vision / Getty Images Hood says her favorite plane to work with was the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. “Domestic, only Eastern Airlines and TWA flew it. It was a very accessible and manageable widebody, with a lovely layout of two seats on each side and four seats in the middle, so everyone could get out easily.” Nobody was unhappy on that plane.” Flying was still glamorous back then, she says. “People dressed up to fly and remembered food in a good way. It’s very different from today. I can only compare it to being in a nice hotel, or maybe on a cruise ship. Nothing was plastic.” and flying coach was super cool,” says Hood, who remembers donning his Ralph Lauren-designed uniform and slicing up chateaubriand steak cooked to order for first-class passengers, who could also choose between Russian caviar and lobster bisque to accompany his Dom Perignon. Not everything was a bed of roses. Smoking on board was very popular, and for flight attendants it was a nightmare. “If you went on a five-day trip, which wasn’t uncommon, you had to wear a whole separate uniform because you smelled so much like smoke,” says Hood. “I was really happy when that was over. The first rows of each section were considered non-smoking, but the whole plane filled with smoke because you couldn’t stop it from going backwards, it was ridiculous.” And the “Mile High Club”? “It wasn’t uncommon on international flights to see a man go to the bathroom and a minute later his seatmate would join him, or some version of that,” says Hood. “It didn’t happen on every flight, but you saw it.” “International flights used to not be as crowded as they are now, so in those five-seat middle sections of a 747 you might see a couple pull up their armrests, grab a blanket and disappear under it. I can’t say what they were doing, but it seemed suspicious.” As for passengers flirting or asking out attendants, that was also common. “I went out with passengers, but most of the time it was disastrous. It was never what I had imagined. But in 1982 I met a guy on a flight from San Francisco to New York. I was sitting in 47F…and I dated him for five years.” An Empowering Job Hood left the job in 1986 to focus on his writing career. Credit: Ann Hood Hood has seen a number of strange things on board.” The strangest would certainly be the first-class woman who seemed to be nursing her cat. I can’t say that was true, but she had her cat on her chest.” “And then the guy who flew the entire way in tight boxer shorts and a dress shirt and tie, because she didn’t want to wrinkle her pants for a job interview. . Or the guy on a 747 in Frankfurt who was cycling down the aisle,” he reveals. That said, routine sometimes started to kick in, and not all flights were a wonderful mix of adventure and glamour. “I would say the job It was 80% fun and 20% boring. On some flights, especially the ones that weren’t very full, there was a lot of time to fill. You can only serve people certain food and drinks, and put on so many movies. I made work fun. I loved talking to people. I loved the feeling of doing it. I still love flying today,” says Hood. She says it was actually possible to visit and experience the cities she traveled to. “Sometimes the layover was too short or you were just tired, but in most cases, the city ​​was right on the doorstep. She took great advantage of that when she flew internationally.” She left the job to focus on her writing career in 1986, and by then things had changed. Deregulation, removing federal control over everything from fares to routes, had fully entered. in force, changing flights forever. The planes filled with more seats and the economy class stopped being so pleasant, but it also democratized the flight and made it available to a much larger part of society. Hood says she is proud of his career in the skies. “Flight attendants are a force. They are highly unionized. They are independent. In the cockpit, they make all the decisions. They have to fix the problems. They are there for emergency things. They land in cities where they don’t know anything or anyone and find their way.” “It’s such an empowering job, but it’s also a sexist job. In itself, it’s as contradictory today as it was when I started it,” she says. However, she recommends it as a career option. “I was 21 when I was hired, and that gave me confidence, poise and the ability to make decisions quickly,” she adds. “Take the reins on that plane and, once you’re down, walk into a city and feel completely at home, or at least figure out how to feel at home in it.” “I don’t know if it should be someone’s life’s work, if they want that, great. But I think a couple of years as a flight attendant could change your life.”