My mom turned 70 a couple of weeks ago, and my big present to her is to make her a book (via Apple's iPhoto) that includes photos from her life 0 - 70. It's been a fun process to go through photos of her past to scan and bring with us into the new millenium.
One of the best decisions my mom ever made was to become a TWA stewardess back in 1961. She'd been on an airplane only once or twice ever when she applied for the job, but it was the absolute perfect job for her and the lifelong passes she got as a result of her service continue to serve her (and my dad) well to this day.
She
told me that one of the questions that they asked her in her interview
was how nicely she kept up her hands. Then then asked to inspect her
hands, which she cheerfully showed off to them, never thinking for a
moment that there was anything wrong whatsoever with the question.
Being
a stewardess in the 60s was a fun and glamorous lifestyle, which was
perfect for my fun and glamorous mom. Here she is with a bunch of other
stewardesses in Okinawa on a layover in 1968.
then she got fired because she got pregnant with me.
but
for her it wasn't as dramatic or horrifying as it sounds now standing
here in 2009. In fact, she had been trying for a while to get pregnant
and she 100% planned to get fired and wanted to stay home with her
baby. She was happy to get fired.
Then the amazing part happened... a class action lawsuit was filed and finally won, granting all of the women stewardesses fired for getting pregnant their jobs back (with a big chunk of back pay and back seniority). So in 1983, when I was in 7th grade she was triumphantly re-hired.
and our whole family got free passes to travel the world together
the
all-red Fulton family ensemble was all Nancy's idea, incidentally. And
yes, all day the locals were good-naturedly laughing at the white
family uniformly dressed in red shirts. My brother didn't want to use
the photo as a Christmas card because he said it looked like he had a
plastic arm.
Anyway, by the time she was in her early 40s she was ready to go back to work. She made some great friends and had a wonderful time flying the friendly skies again.
It
was a huge bonus for our family that my mom had that job. Eventually
she retired, but even when TWA was bought by American the gravy train
kept rolling... she and my dad still get fabulous deals (e.g., 90% off)
on airline tickets, and often travel first class internationally. Here she is at a flight attendant's reunion in 1997:
that
gold dress she has on over the top of her clothes is something the
flight attendants actually wore in flight in the 1960s. I think it was
some sort of holiday thing. I once wore it for Halloween.
A fun, glamorous, wonderful life so far. Something to celebrate. One of my mom's favorite things to say is: life is made up of moments, not days.
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