Back at home , my father and I sat at the kitchen table while I read through the applications . Some were just one page , others were several pages long .
“ Now , fill them all out ,” my father said in his slightly Southern drawl .
I looked at all of those beautiful logos of clouds and globes and wings and said , “ I think I ’ ll just apply to these .” I plucked TWA and Pan Am from the stack , then added Eastern for good measure because they flew to the Caribbean and Latin America .
“ Apply to all of them ,” Dad said . “ You never know . For example , I just read in the paper that United is trying to get routes to China .”
With all my twenty-one-year-old bravado I wanted to tell him that I did indeed know . Instead , I picked up a pen and began to fill out every application , Dad instructing me along the way . The applications were mostly the same : name and birthdate , level of education , height and weight , vision , and the perplexing question “ Can you swim ?” ( Later I would learn that this was a requirement for most airlines in the unlikely situation of an ocean ditching .) They also asked if you were willing to relocate ( definitely !), if you spoke any languages ( French , un peu ), and for a list of jobs you ’ d had ( salesgirl , waitress , model ).
That same year , Anna Quindlen wrote in the New York Times , “ They are attractive and good-tempered … they are flight attendants , and the occasional air traveler who still thinks of them as the Co f fe e -Te a - o r -Me type is in for a jolt . Beneath the faultlessly groomed exteriors — ‘ It is still our contention that cosmetics are necessary for all women ,’ said one training specialist — there is a different kind of person .” That person , Quindlen went on to describe , was “ older , better educated .” Combine that with travel benefits , a salary competitive with other entry-level jobs , and the chance to work with many kinds of people , and the job of flight attendant was perhaps even more appealing than in the early days . Height : 5 ’ 7 ” Weight : 120 pounds Hair : Blond Eyes : Green Vision : Corrected to 20 / 20 with contact lenses Education : BA English , University of Rhode Island , 1978 Work Experience : Marsha Jordan Girl , teen model for Jordan Marsh department stores , Warwick , RI , and Boston , MA , 1971 – 1976 Salesgirl , Jordan Marsh , 1971 – 1974 Waitress , Dunes Club , summer 1976 , 1977 Student Body Treasurer , paid position on student government ,
University of Rhode Island , 1976 – 1978 Freshman Orientation Leader for incoming freshmen at the
University of Rhode Island , summer 1977 Languages : English , French Are You Willing to Relocate : YES Can You Swim ? YES The first response I received was from American Airlines . They were having preliminary interviews at TF Green Airport in Warwick , ten minutes from my parents ’ house . ( The airport uses Providence as its name — or PVD in airport code — but it actually sits about seven miles away in Warwick .) The same week that I filled out applications , my mother and I went to Casual Corner at the mall to buy an interview suit . No shoulder pads or floppy ties like the business majors I knew had bought . We left the mall with a black suit — polyester , pencil skirt , fitted jacket , white blouse , and a black , white , and pink patterned scarf to tie jauntily around my neck , just like a flight attendant .
Like almost every girl I knew , my hair was cut short in a Dorothy Hamill wedge , named after the 1976 Olympic figure-skating champion who sported that haircut . Standing in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the door of my childhood bedroom in my black suit and that scarf and black high heels , my short hair highlighted to look sun-kissed , I saw a flight attendant looking back at me .
My father had told me a story that a friend of his from work had shared with him about his daughter ’ s flight-attendant interview . She ’ d been led into a room and invited to sit across from the interviewer . For the next excruciating five minutes the two of them sat in silence . Then the interviewer stood and thanked her for coming . She never heard from the airline again .
“ They ’ re looking for friendly people ,” my father told me . “ Walk in there . Shake hands . Say your name and ask them how they are . Don ’ t just sit there waiting for them to do something .”
The story of that interview gone wrong scared the hell out of me . I would do as my father instructed , but what if the interviewers surprised me with something else ? “ Just have your answers ready ,” Dad said . Sure . But answers to what ? “ Well , why do you want this job ?” he asked . “ I want to travel ,” I said . He laughed . “ So does everybody . They aren ’ t hiring you to give you free vacations .” “ I like people ?” I tried . Dad grinned . “ There you go . You love people and you love to travel .”
At the airport , I was led into a small waiting room with half a dozen other applicants , and one by one we were called in for a preliminary interview . I love people and I love to travel , I kept repeating until my name was called .
My interviewer was a woman with big hair that looked as if it were hair-sprayed into a helmet . She had on more makeup than I ’ d had to wear during fashion shows at Jordan Marsh , and she did not look like she loved people . She looked angry .
I put on my best smile — her lips were covered in very red lipstick , mine in pale-pink lip gloss — and shook her hand . “ Hi ! I ’ m Ann . How are you ?” I said .
She frowned and looked over my application . Then she asked me to walk back and forth across the room , the same request given to Kate Ferguson back in 1946 . I walked back and forth , stopping when I was in front of her again , still smiling . “ Thank you ,” she said in a way that let me know we were done . “ That ’ s it ?” I said , surprised . I hadn ’ t even been asked to sit down . “ Yup ,” she said , and opened the door for me . “ Thank you for coming .”
Needless to say , I never heard from them again . I went over and over what I had done wrong but couldn ’ t come up with anything . My father said that I simply didn ’ t have the look they wanted .
54 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JUNE 2022