Posted on 11/29/2007 1:57:28 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HONOLULU - When Patti Smart was hired as an Aloha Airlines stewardess 50 years ago, it was a different job for a different time.
She rubbed elbows with Frank Sinatra, performed in-flight fashion shows and danced in smoke-filled aisles aboard cramped DC-3s seating two dozen passengers.
Smart, nicknamed the "Queen of Aloha," retires Friday after more than a half-century on the job she started when she was 18 years old.
A lot has changed since the old days, when people dressed up in hats and bow ties to fly on propeller-powered planes across the Pacific.
"You're supposed to have the same niceness, the same warmth, the same caring. But it's faster now," Smart said. "In the older days, the flights were longer so you had more time to be intimate with passengers and you got to be very good friends with them."
Smart has the third most years in the sky among the 55,000 flight attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants. The most senior flight attendant in the nation started her job in 1950.
Smart was paid $170 per month for 85 hours of work after she was hired on Jan. 28, 1957.
Today, as the airline's most senior flight attendant (they're not called stewardesses anymore), she makes $43.50 per hour catering to first-class passengers on flights between Orange County, Calif., and Honolulu.
Hearing Smart reminisce over times gone by makes her job sound more like fun than work. She laughs when remembering affable celebrities, prankster pilots and a box-like cart that sheltered passengers from the rain as they disembarked.
The job has grown on her so much that she's reluctant to leave.
"There will be sparks flying from my feet as they drag me down the runway," she said.
One time, she got into a tight spot when her skirt flew out the window.
As she was serving pineapple juice to passengers, she spilled it all over her uniform. She changed into a pair of pants and washed out her skirt in the lavatory. When she tried to air-dry the skirt by letting it flap in the breeze from the cockpit window, one of the pilots snatched it and let it fly out the window.
"I wanted to kill those two," she said. "I wanted to get their two heads together and whack them. They were laughing and laughing."
The joke didn't stop there. Another pilot on the next flight out radioed her plane and teased that he had caught the skirt as it went flying by. Other pilots also heard the radio report of the flight attendant who lost her skirt, and the story quickly traveled around the world.
Retired Aloha Airlines Capt. Ron Sprink recalls that Smart was "a barrel of fun" when she started flying, and she acquired the skill of keeping her passengers orderly soon afterward.
"The ones who stay on for a long career, the dedication shows through, and they have to snap their fingers at people every once in a while," Sprink said.
With the advent of lower-cost flights with fewer amenities, air travel has lost some of its charm, Smart said. Passengers are more concerned with getting where they're going than enjoying the ride.
Aloha Airlines has been engaged in a three-way airfare war with rivals Hawaiian and upstart go! airlines for more than a year.
"The pie is the same size, but there are more slices," Smart said. "These are trying times. Fuel is going up, and everyone is feeling the pinch."
Even after retirement, Smart will continue to participate in a group that meets for monthly prayers for the company's survival.
"Aloha was started out of adversity. We became strong out of adversity, and we will survive despite adversity," she said. "I think we're going to make it."
___
On the Net:
Association of Flight Attendants: http://www.afanet.org
Aloha Airlines: http://www.alohaairlines.com
Aloha Airlines flight attendant Patti Smart recalls her history of working in the airline industry at the corporate office of Aloha Airlines, Friday, Nov. 23, 2007 in Honolulu. After more than 50 years of service as a stewardess for Aloha Airlines, Ms. Smart is set to retire. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
So much for hoping for a grass skirt pic ...
Oh, I’m sure one or two may pop up..
One time, she got into a tight spot when her skirt flew out the window.
As she was serving pineapple juice to passengers, she spilled it all over her uniform. She changed into a pair of pants and washed out her skirt in the lavatory. When she tried to air-dry the skirt by letting it flap in the breeze from the cockpit window, one of the pilots snatched it and let it fly out the window.
“I wanted to kill those two,” she said. “I wanted to get their two heads together and whack them. They were laughing and laughing.”
The joke didn’t stop there. Another pilot on the next flight out radioed her plane and teased that he had caught the skirt as it went flying by. Other pilots also heard the radio report of the flight attendant who lost her skirt, and the story quickly traveled around the world.
Seems high.
union.. after 50 years , she should own a plane or two..
That problem probably happened less often with the dawning of the jet age.
They only get paid from the time the door closes until the doo opens, so it’s not nearly as good as it seems.
Her smile is her secret... nice article
Is that right? So all the time they need to wait for the next flight in the middle of the night, etc., doesn't count?
She was bringing people to Hawaii before anyone ever heard Tiny Bubbles in the Wine. I wonder if she’s sick of it too?
I’ve flown a few inter-island flights on vacations over the years, she looks familiar. I wish her well.
I remember a few Pan Am and Eastern attendants that could still carry a smile after years in the FRiendly skies.
That's the way it works. If they stay away from home overnight, they get an additional small hourly per diem to cover meals and misc. expenses while they are on the ground. Works the same way for pilots.
When the Sea Hawks first started Rainier Bank in Seattle put out a limited edition,numbered Sea Hawks belt buckle. I was lucky enough to get one. I wonder if it is worth anything?
When young.
I think her older sister was serving on a Delta flight I took last week.
As a young boy (6-7) I flew with my Mom on a Pan-Am Cliper from San Francisco to Hawaii. This was in 1957 I think the aircraft was called a “Connie”. Four props. First time I was ever on a plane. Great fun. We were going to meet and live my Father, a Marine, who had been transfered to Hawaii. We walked down the steps and many leis were placed around or necks ... what a place Hawaii was in the time I lived there. When we returned to the mainland (Hawaii became a State while we were there) after 4 yrs. we sailed on a ship, USS Luraline, back to San Fransico.
http://www.air-and-space.com/Lockheed%20Constellation%20survivors.htm
LOL
Don’t forget that they get to fly for free as well as getting passes for friends and families etc.
Green Acres Air
Seems high.
After half a century, I think she's earned it.
Most of the flight attendendants I run into on AA are libs and are mean and bitchy.
I have visited Hawaii twice since I lived there as a young boy. It is of course not the same ... I remember my Father driving my Mother and I in our ‘52 DeSoto to the other side of Ohau using the Pali mountian pass ... back then this was a two lane road ... very scary! Winds through the pass had blown cars off the road! He would always stop at the King Kamehameha over look ... I was always impressed but scared.
One of my good friends was a Pan Am flight engineer in the late 50s. He didn’t mention Constellations, but he had a lot of time in Boeing 377 Stratocruisers, all of it over water. He told about actually being on a flight that got lost and had to land on a small WW 2 fighter strip on some remote island. One of those planes ditched between SFO and Hawaii after a prop ran away and destroyed an engine. They were able to do the ditching alongside a weather ship, and all were saved. A minor miracle. Two or three other Pan Am Stratocruisers were not so fortunate.
Thanks for that ... after seeing the Pan Am Stratocruiser that is the aircraft we flew to Hawaii!
Leni
The Connie looks like a 4 engine fighter plane.
Semper Fi,
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