My First Chaotic Commercial Flight

I had never been on a commercial airplane before.  But here I was boarding an American Airline flight headed for Chicago.  I had been accepted as a stewardess trainee.  I was 22 years old and just a hick from Arkansas.  This was a dream come true.

Having ridden buses before, I tried to put my make-up case in the overhead rack, only to be told by the stewardess that it must go under my seat.  First big mistake and so embarrassing.

After Christmas I had gone to Houston with a family friend for a visit.  While there I had my second interview with the airline.  I waited with bated breath to hear from them.  Finally in February I got word that I had been accepted and was to report to the Stewardess School at Midway Airport in Chicago the first week in March.

My flight left Houston late.  I had to change planes in Cinncinati.  When we arrived there I had missed my connection.  Oh, dear!  What to do.  They had stressed the importance of always being on time.

The stewardess was very kind to me and took me into the terminal and to the crew quarters.  She sent a FAX to the Stewardess School explaining about the delay.  I spent the night sleeping on a sofa in the crew lounge and next morning took the first flight on to Chicago.

Of course, class had already started by the time I got there.  So I made my grand entrance wondering if I would be penalized for being late.  Thankfully, I was not.  The next six weeks were crammed full of classes to learn about the airplanes, airport codes, emergency procedures, food service and all kinds of information to become qualified to fly.

There were about 30 in the class but 4 didn't make the grade.  It was a happy day when I received my wings.  The DC-7 Coach was brand new at that time and they took us to Boston in one for our graduation ceremony. It was snowing when we got there.  We had prepared a song to sing when we got off the plane.  But the air was so cold that the sound did not carry.  And it was cold enough that nobody had come outside to greet us.  We felt a little foolish standing there on the tarmack singing to nobody. 

We got to meet the governor in his office, have a great banquet and even saw Pat Boone in the lobby of the hotel.  I really didn't know who he was at the time, but I heard one of the other girls squeal and rush over to him and others followed.  So I went too and got his autograph on my diploma.

From there we all headed off to our home bases.  I was the only one sent to Nashville.  I didn't know anyone there.  Nashville was a small base and the Stewardess Supervisor put me in touch with some girls who were looking for a roommate to share a 2 bedroom duplex.  I gladly accepted.  My rent was $35 a month.  My pay was $385 a month.  You must remember that it was 1957 and that was good pay then.

And so my flying career had begun.  After a slightly disasterous first Commercial flight I was now a full fledged stewardess and would fly for over nine year before being forced to "retire" at the ripe old age of 32.  That was the rule back then.