Years ago, Delta was great. Convair - props. Convair - turbines. Douglas - jets.
Student Discount Card - $15 to go anywhere in the USA.
Many employees were aircraft people. Stewardesses with smarts, college degrees, nurses, military veterans. Many had fathers who were World War II vets.
Some of those ladies returned to work again, in the 1990’s, after their kids had left the nest. Fun talking with the Stews, because they knew so much aviation and aerospace history.
For a while, Cincinnati was a Delta hub, and that was wonderful - instead of wrestling with Atlanta (and there, Hartsfield, being many miles out of your way).
Some of the earlier DC-9’s had 2 seats on one side of the isle, and 3 seats on the other. Roomy seating.
Flying when the cockpit doors were open, and people respected our blessings.
The earliest prop flight that I recall, was a TWA Constellation L-749 (IIRC). That, plus some DC-4’s, sat on the tarmac.
The terminal was 2 Quonset huts alongside each other. A “passenger lounge” was a simple, 2nd level deck, where you could sit and look out over the field and activity.
There was no automation of luggage. There were no jets.
There were several Skycaps - men who hauled baggage and freight - and they were tipped. The Skycaps were historians - they knew so many things about aviation, airlines, pilots, historical people, the development of air travel.
And, they remmbered you; would call out your name - and you nodded, and along they came to help you . . . and they did help you. Many, many wonderful men, worthy of respect.
Many pilots and crew members were World War II vets. They also knew a lot of the passengers - often times, meeting an old friend.
You could wander up to the cockpit and talk shop.
At the terminal, you could walk up the tower - 2 or sometimes 3 flights of steps. Night, was a great time to visit - the lighting. (My last visit was 1983, with a date. We took along some pizzas and soda pop. I did not think we could actually do it . . . but I picked up ‘the phone’ and the tower replied, OK.)
So, back to the Connie. Right seat, on the wing. Number 3 start. BA..ROOM..BA.DA.BA.DA...COUGH...BA.DA.VAROOM. and clouds of smoke. 4 engines (Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone). 72 cylinders total.
It was grand. Streaks of dirt and oil. Noise. Vibration. Normal.
People with skills and a love of flight. Wonderful.