Come with us on a journey through time and (aerospace)…
Author and former TWA flight attendant, Ann Hood
American novelist and New York Times best-selling author Ann Hood came of age when the jet age came of age. Her latest book, "Fly Girl" is a memoir of her adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant, right at the peak of the air travel industry. Growing up in Virginia Hood witnessed the very first flight of the Boeing 707, which ushered in the era of passenger jet travel.
By the time she was 11, she moved back to Rhode Island with her family and had read a book titled, "How To Become An Airline Stewardess," right there and then, her mind was made up about her future.
“Although it was sexist as hell, it enticed me because it talked about having a job that allowed you to see the world and I thought, well, that might work.
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Once she graduated from college, Hood started sending job resumes to airlines. "I think1978 was a really interesting year because many of the women I went to college with had one foot in old ideas and stereotypes, and another foot in the future, it was kind of a confusing time for young women."
And the term "Flight attendant" was a newly minted term, a gender-neutral upgrade from "hostess" and "stewardess," and the deregulation of the entire airline industry was just around the corner, ready to shake things up. Flying was still considered very glamorous and sophisticated as flight attendants were beautiful and sexy, as Hood puts it. But the stereotypes of stewardesses in miniskirts and flirting with male passengers still endured, (popularized by books like "Coffee, tea, or me? The Uninhabited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses" which were published as factual in 1967, but later were revealed to have been written by Donald Bain, an American Airlines PR executive.
WAIT, WHAT, Weight Limits?
One of the most shocking requirements as part of being hired as a flight attendant was that women had to maintain the weight they had at the time of hiring. Also, problematic back then were the hazards of age restrictions and losing their job due to marriage or childbirth.
“All airlines were sent a chart with your application, you looked at your height and maximum weight and if you did not fall within that, they wouldn’t even interview you.
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But once you got hired, at least the TWA, you couldn’t go up to that maximum weight. You had to stay at your hiring weight, which in my case was about 15 pounds less than my maximum limit.
Hood was one of the 560 flight attendants, out of 14,000 applicants, hired in 1978 by TWA, then a major carrier, acquired by American Airlines in 2001. Hood described that back then people really dressed up to fly and remembered the food in a good way. She compares it to being in a fine hotel, or a cruise ship. Nothing was plastic and even riding in coach was extremely nice. And smoking was even allowed on board. It wasn't uncommon on an international flight to see a man go into the bathroom and a minute later, his seatmate joined him. It didn't happen on every flight but it was definitely an occurrence.
As for passengers flirting or asking attendants out, Hood says that was quite common too. She reveal that she did date passengers, but that it was mostly disastrous, with the exception of1982, she met a guy on a flight from San Francisco to New York and dated him for five years.
Oddities on board
Hood has also seen a share of bizarre things on board and not every flight was a wondrous concentration of adventure and glamour as it all seems to be. "The weirdest thing would definitely be the woman in first-class who appeared to be breastfeeding her cat. I can't say that it was actually happening, but she had her cat to her breast."
"Then there's the guy who flew an entire flight in his tighty-whities, dress shirt and tie — because he didn't want to wrinkle his pants for a job interview. There was also another guy on a 747 in Frankfurt who was riding his bicycle down the aisle," she reveals.
She describes the job as 80% fun, and 20% boring. Sometimes, the flights weren't very full and there was a lot of time to kill. One can only serve people so much food and drinks and play so many movies, so she had to make the job fun. She loved talking to people and the feeling of striking up a sparkling conversation. While Hood is proud of her career in the skies and still recommends it as a career option to this day, the recommendation still carries warnings.
“It’s such an empowering job, yet it’s a sexist job. In itself, it is as contradictory today as the time in which I started it,” she says.
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”I don’t know if it should be someone’s life’s work — if they want it to be that, great. But I think a few years working as a flight attendant could change your life.
Think flying is now cramped and fairly awful? Generally speaking, it is. But check out how good your grandparents and parents used to have it. OH EM GEEZY…
Full piece is 👉🏼
FLY GIRL
Packed with funny, moving, and shocking stories of life as a flight attendant, Fly Girl captures the nostalgia and magic of air travel at its height and the thrill that remains with every takeoff.
