The Pan Am television program which airs Sunday nights at 10 pm on ABC has spent its first month introducing characters and situations that the creators hope will garner eyeballs. Truth is, I don’t know if I would be watching this program IF I had not been a Pan Am stewardess in 1969. But I owe my exposure to both the African and European continents as well as the Caribbean and South America to having held this job.
In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and corporations were legally obliged to stop their discriminatory practices and to hire people of color. I was tested and retested on my ability to speak English, Spanish, and French. My final test was for the presence of sickle cell anemia, which to that point in life I was unaware had a high occurrence in African-Americans.
Today is my day to write my weekly recap over on the Yahoo Network about this program noting discrepancies or making observations that amuse me. I am my own self-appointed peanut gallery (My girlfriend in Seattle will appreciate this). The program is lily-white and this is historically correct since it is set in the years 1963-1965. The few people of color that were known to fly were limited to special folk like Martin Luther King and Diana Ross, all on the super-star level. This is not totally true because I am certain the Henderson Travel, a black-owned travel agency existed in Atlanta, Georgia. But mass transportation had yet to be commodified. The developing middle class had not clearly reared its head. So no matter what I say over on the yahoo network about the attitudes held by the actors in this program or even that these attitudes still persist in society today, it does not change the fact that my experience with Pan Am is integral to who I am today. The memories from this job live inside of me.
Take a look at their flights to East Asia, Monaco or Rio de Janeiro. What are your memories of your first flights. What seminal memory colors who you are?
Image credits: Life Magazine cover on which Martin Luther King and Bob Hope pose after disembarking at JFK airport in New York after returning from England in 1967.
roycrosse says
My first travel across the Atlantic was 1962 from Port of Spain to Toronto with Air Canada. Later in the decade it was BWIA – owned by the Govt. of Trinidad &Tobago, pre-1964, which later changed to Caribbean Airlines. At any rate, the company had a goodly staff of local women on board and a few black men piloting. They served actual food. I mean Caribbean style rice and peas with meat and plantain etc., and chewing gum for popping the ear drums. Remember chewing gum? It was standard fair for all travelers.
Flying in the early sixties was still a serious matter. Friends and family were informed, some would come to visit before the flight, or see you off at the Airport. And there was usually sometime extra to pack for family or friends at the destination point. Wearing well ironed clothes, shaving, and sometimes sporting a dress suite was not unusual.
Now you can look any old how, but no chewing gum.
roycrosse
boomrwiz says
Hi Roy
Your comment brings other memories that I had not thought about. Indeed, when you had your first plane ride, In Seattle we were still going to the airport to watch planes take off as an evening past time. I had the nerve to think that I would one day fly away on one of these planes (and I did). Even in the early 80’s when people used to arrive, someone always went inside to greet them. None of this curbside pick up. Your experience coming from T & T with your country’s own planes is/was a unique migration experience. People had moved across the continental US on horses, in wagons, on trains and then the jet age of planes. By the time you left in 62, people in the diaspora were starting to move around the world. Oh the world continues to change. Thanks Roy for weighing in.
boomrwiz says
Until I started working for Pan Am, I had only been to Tijuana, Mexico and that was by car from San Diego. I am certain no one in my family had flown before me. But then times change and now not many of my personal friends are as digitally involved as I am. Thank you for stopping by and sharing. I appreciate it.
Beth@Boomer Highway says
Patricia,
I remember my first airplane flight. I was in college and was asked to be in my cousin’s wedding. She lived in LA. So I was flown by my aunts, who could afford it, from Chicago to LA. I bought a new coat to wear on the plane! It was terribly exciting for me. I can imagine how your experience stuck in your brain and changed you at some level. Though during the early years of my marriage I could count the number of times I flew, now I travel frequently to LA (where my grandchildren live!) and it’s become common for me. Of course, air travel is now like being on a bus in the sky!