Pan Am Captains and the Revenge of the Flight Attendants

This is a ‘teaser’ article about Pan Am captains from my Pan Am book, My Pan Am Years: The Smell of the Jet Fuel and the Roar of the Passengers’ which is available on Kindle.This post generated so much controversy on a social media site among former flight attendants, some of whom had the audacity, the temerity, the gall, if you will, to tell me to  cease and desist from telling ‘my crazy stories’ that I decided to re-post it here. The denial of the truth is a poisonous pedagogy-

Charles Bronson had nothing on Pan Am flight attendants. If the pilots messed with us, and it was almost always the captain who did the messin’, because he was the captain, doncha know, we had our little ways of getting even. This is a prime reason, besides the very good one of just being a decent human being, that you should learn how to behave yourself and treat other people with respect and consideration. It doesn’t matter what that person does for a living; a street sweeper or the person busing your table in a restaurant is earning an honest living, and making your life better. Their job is as important as an accountant’s, a doctor’s, or a lawyer’s. I don’t want to live with dirty streets or walk into a restaurant filled with unbused tables, and no clean dishes.

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything: Living With Migraines

Earlier this week, on my radio show ‘A Woman’s Guide To Everything’ on Blog Talk Radio, I featured a former Pan Am colleague, and Gidget look-a-alike, Betsy Quiroz. She has had to live with severe migraines for many years, and is very knowledgeable about them. The show can be found in the archives on the website under the name of the show. Everyone can be affected by migraines, including children.

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The Fighter Pilot and the Figure Skater

For some obscure reason, I am suddenly fascinated by my parent’s history. Maybe it is not so obscure; I have been writing about my life in these pages. I have written about my years in Australia, and my years with Pan Am. I guess once you open the floodgates, it’s hard to stop the flow. I’ve also been digging out photos from the boxes where I keep them, and seeing them with fresh eyes. My mom, a self-taught figure skater, is so gorgeous, holding that Braniff airplane model. Why didn’t I realize before how pretty she was? And my dad, the fighter pilot, in his classic aviator photo, with the white scarf, leather bomber jacket, headphones, and airman’s hat. He’s devastating!

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