Read Online Pan Am Unbuckled: A Very Plane Diary by Ann Shelby Valentine, Ramona Fillman - Free Book Online

crew member told me to sit back down and wait until the plane leveled off—the FIRST thing I had NOT learned in training school. During that training flight, I almost dropped a whole dinner tray. I did drop some things off of a tray and wasn’t sure how I was supposed to pick them up. Then I remembered the old adage about Mrs. Roosevelt’s White House maid dropping a roast beef in front of guests, and without missing a beat, Mrs. Roosevelt asked her to “Get the other roast beef that’s in the kitchen.” With that in mind, I did likewise.
    Where I got low marks was in my facial expressions. I was NOT supposed to show my feelings on my face—frowning in concentration, and grimacing when I didn’t think I was doing well. The job required more of a performance, like stage acting, and I needed to perform my serving duties without showing what was going on inside. I was, however, complimented on my gracious demeanor when conversing with passengers —that I was articulate and “Could talk myself out of any situation”, and that I was very well groomed.
    I also learned that when I was in the air my skin got dry and my feet swelled. So, the first thing I did when I arrived back in Miami from the training flight was to buy a size larger shoe and a pound of moisturizer— for when I was in the air!
    The last week in Training School, I received my Base assignment. I had submitted my first, second and third choices for home base, but the final decision would be up to Pan Am. My first choice was San Francisco, my second choice Miami, and my third choice Los Angeles. Imagine my surprise when I was assigned New York. I had not asked for NY. But, of course, I spoke Russian, and Moscow flights were based in NY, so I should have guessed that it would very likely be my assignment.

    Our class picture was taken the day we got our wings. Renness Senior came for the occasion, as promised, and pinned my wings on me. Having her there took much of the sting out of my mother’s absence on that day. Unfortunately, in my intent to “Live life to the fullest”, and trying to fit every possible activity into whatever the schedule was, I’d stayed at the beach way too long the day before. As a result, my face was red, my eyes were puffy, and my lower lip was swollen from sun burn to twice its normal size.
    It was such an exception for me to call home, but I called to tell my father that training was over and that I would be based in NY. The newly trained stewardesses were leaving at different times and to different locations in groups of three or four. I was the only one going to NY. I was exhilarated, though, to again be on my own. I was going to NY and would figure it all out when I got there.

Upper East Side
     

    I arrived at JFK’s Pan Am World Port in the late afternoon and went directly down the disembarkation service stairs to the OPS crew desk. OPS desk was where the airline’s operational hub, pilots, aircrafts, flight service, catering, baggage, and EVERYONE got their orders. I was told in training school to check in with the crew desk at the assigned base as soon as I could. The crew desk was next to the crew lounge—a big waiting room filled with quiet, lethargic, uniform clad men and women. The OPS manager took down my information and asked if I had a contact address. I said “No, I don’t really. But, someone told me that, in a worst-case scenario, I could sleep in the crew lounge.” He said “You don’t really want to do that, even if you can. You have four days to find a place to live before scheduling can assign you a trip. Good luck.” I thanked him.
    If I couldn’t find a place to stay immediately, my plan was to stay briefly with a great uncle who lived in NY –but that was a back-up, back-up plan. I walked into the crew lounge and found the bulletin board. There, in the bottom right corner, was a 3x5 card that said ‘Roommate Wanted, call Robbie’. The rent was fifty dollars a-month and in Manhattan. My