ABOVE AND BELOW THE CLOUDS

“Stay in the water,” Mister Parker ordered him, tossed as many vests as he could grasp into the pool until the correct amount was floating happily in there.

“Alright, Ladies, in you go,” he shouted.

One mademoiselle after another jumped in, while other slithered over the rim into the cool wet element. Only one missy, with tears in her eyes, confessed that she couldn’t swim.

“It is one of the requirements to become a stewardess,” he said to her.

“Even on the application it is stated and you obviously answered with a yes,” he continued.

“I know, but I never thought it will be tested,” she whispered sobbing.

“Later, I would have learned how to swim, honestly.”

She knew, her career as a stewardess was over, at this moment.

To her surprise he answered,

“Go over to the shallow end of the pool and put on your vest, inflate it and paddle over to the others. And promise to learn how to swim, and that fast. Also forget, this conversation ever took place.”

She had the urge to kiss him, but stopped herself in time; she was so astounded and grateful!

All the others were also glad, over the outcome of this incident. They were aware of the consequence if Mister Parker would not have been so tolerant.

The next contraption which was thrown into the swimming pool was a yellow compendium, only much bigger. As a matter of fact, it was so large; it required two men to move it. Of course, one of the men was Herbert, who was summoned out of the water to help getting this surprise package maneuvered over the rim. Doing so, Mister Parker was holding on to a cord which was attached to this floating monster. He gave a quick jerk on this line and a loud, very loud, hissing noise filled the swimming hall, augmented by an echo effect.

The bundle split open with a flashy popping sound, to expose two large doughnuts, joined together, expanding rapidly upwards to slap on the water, revealing a life raft. The whole show took only a few seconds, with the whistling sound of air, slowly subsiding. The silence afterwards was ear splitting. None of the students had ever experienced such a spectacle before. When and where should it have been, unless one had gone through an emergency where such a device was necessary? Again, a spontaneous applause took place and this time it was really followed by a bow, towards the spectators, by no other then Mr. Parker.

He explained how to enter this life saving enormous monster from the water. There are two, so called, boarding stations. They were provided on opposite sides, with a little blown up sausage just under the water line. Slippery because it is wet, one is supposed to use it as a foot step. Good luck, since nobody has shoes on with non-slip soles. The upper and lower doughnuts are identical, since they might come up one way or the other. To climb into the raft is not easy at all and requires a lot of strengths. Most girls would not be able to do so. But help was always given, of course. A few lines, attached to the side of the rubber raft, are the only support where you can hold on.

Herbert, who was in no mood to be the laboratory test animal again, paddled slowly away from the object of interest, thinking to be out of sight this way, wrong!!!

Mr. Parker addressed him and said nonchalantly,

“Herbert, show the ladies how to board this entity, okay?”

He propelled himself over there, splashing his feet like an Olympic swimmer, which he was not by far, swearing loud with his mouth under water, causing bubbles to dance around his nose, and saying:

“Act number five, scene seven, light, rolling, and action! Hollywood, here I come.”

He grabbed the attached lines and found it impossible to pull himself into the raft. So he tried a different approach. He raised out of the water just enough to slide on his belly over the top until his forehead touched the rubber bottom which was stretched tightly between those two round knackwursts. With a somersault, he landed with a big thump on his wet back which echoed back and forth from wall to wall in this hall (it rhymes!), only to be replaced by a thunderous laughter by all the onlookers. Herbert felt like the biggest fool this side of the Mississippi. (Which is any old place, on this, our planet?)

He thought, “Why do I always have to be such a dupe, even when I am not trying to imitate a clown!”

After the laughter had subsided, he didn’t believe what he heard.

Mister Parker announced, “This is exactly the way it has to be done, congratulation, Herbert!”

He continued, “You must have seen it before, didn’t you?”

“N-n-nooo,” Herbert stuttered.

“Well in this case, double congratulation,” he added.

“So I did alright?” Herbert asked himself.

“Yes, you dummy!” he answered from somewhere inside.

“Alright, no complaints!”

One after the other struggled into this round enclosure; some needed help, which was given. With all these activities taken place, Mister Parker stayed on dry grounds to give orders or explanations.

“Next,” he said: “the utility bag has to come on board.”

Nobody understood what he was talking about!

“So,” he said. “Everybody look outside of the doughnut and find a line dangling in the water.”

One girl shouted: “I found it!”

“Pull on it and get it on board, whatever is attached to it.”

She tried and explained to be unable to do so. Something is holding it back.

“That’s the utility bag and it will be, when the life raft inflates, 99.9 percent of the times, be under the floating isle. The only way to get it is someone has to go overboard, hold on with one hand to the raft and with the other hand follow the line to pull the bag from under the bulge to the outside. Two others will hoist it safely inside. It is important because the next thing to do is to put the sea anchor over board, which is nothing but a small parachute-like device on a line, which has to be attached on the raft at the point where the wind is coming from, to prevent the raft to tip over when the sea is rough and the wind can get underneath.

There are a lot of other steps to be taken, which will fill a few more pages of this book. So let’s leave it at that!

One more item to mention, a bible is also included, water proof packed, needing no instruction!

Well, one more piece of important equipment, among so many, should be the Gibson Girl, which is a radio signal apparatus; it gives a constant SOS signal and can be homed in on. It has the shape of a female body, which needed a lot of imagination to recognize it as ,girl‘, with a handle to crank some electricity into it, extremely hard to turn. To make it effective, a kite had to be launched, on a wire, to act as an antenna, and another wire to hang into the water to ground this whole paraphernalia. A hand-held two way radio or a cell phone was not invented yet. The handling of all the equipment and the locations, like fire extinguisher, oxygen bottles and first aid kits, was always a very important priority with Pan Am because it was different for each type of aircraft. flight attendants changed from one type to another constantly.

To accomplish a more realistic training for the life raft drill, the US Coast Guard in New York offered to take a whole training class, with the comprehensive equipment, out on the bay, with one of their boats. It was welcomed by all concerned and so it was done, for some time. The coast guard took them out there, a life raft was launched and the trainees entered their inflated island and were left alone. How better and realistic it was, the real McCoy.

The sea anchor was tossed overboard after the equipment bag was retrieved. The canvas was rigged to shield the survivors from the elements, as procedures commanded it. Now the instructor went through the whole arsenal of all items provided, which was a time-consuming affair. When it was time to put the kite up into the blue yonder in order to crank the Gibson Girl to life, it was the first time they took a look outside and realized they were not in the bay anymore, they had drifted out into the open ocean.

“No problem,” The instructor announced, “Now we make good use of our SOS device!”

And so it was proceeding quite well. The coast guard station received the emergency signal loud and clear. After a while, they were getting annoyed because it didn’t stop.

“What the hell do they think they are doing? Are those Pan Am people going crazy? Stop already, please, you are getting on our nerves. You have still a lot of time before the arranged time for your pick up!”

Finally, someone investigated, why the signal continued to be sending. When he found out and told his colleagues, they had a good laugh and were amused by the predicament the members of the raft were in. Being on alert at all times anyhow, a boat was on its way to rescue those unintentional escapees.

Should it be mentioned?

“It was the last time, the more realistic training was done!”

BACK TO THE SWIMMING POOL!

Since injections were administered all the time, one or the other arm was tender to the touch. For example, to utilize a rapid escape from an airplane, on fire or so, (hopefully standing still,) slides are used to reach mother earth as fast as possible. At the end of this glide, two helpers are positioned, on each side, to assist the arriving individual to get out of the way for the next appearing figure, which is supposed to be very fast. To accomplish this feat those twins, down there, will grab something of the fast-arriving soul. At the same moment an ear-piercing scream can be heard, because this freshly recipient of some injections in the arms was grabbed, where else but at the point where the needles found their entrance. Instructions demand to run like hell away from the airplane, for many reasons. Absolutely not necessary to remind those tortured folks. They run out of basic instincts, implanted into all living creatures, for millenniums: “Run away from danger and places where pain was inflicted.”

The instructor, for this section of education, had a contented smirk to show. He was convinced of the gratifying success which he had conveyed on his students. How else could he interpret the fast running and the screams of enthusiastic excitement? And nobody laughed or giggled stupidly or even acted silly. Later on it was learned that this was his first time instructing a class of freshmen. He was used to be the leader for long time crew members on their refresher assignment, who did not have new vaccinations in their arms.

One day commenced, which was not forgotten for a long time. It was the period to introduce the future bartenders of the air to the waiting world. In other words, instructions were on the agenda to learn how to mix and garnish alcoholic beverages. To the surprise of the apprentices, the real stuff was used to demonstrate the skill and finesse of combining different liquids and condiments to produce the perfect drink. It is science, so it seemed to the students. Pamphlets were distributed with explanations how to produce the most common thirst-quenchers. The largest bombshell, however, was the unexpected invitation by Mister Goglia, the instructor and master of booze blending, to pass on those glasses after taking a small sip out of them.

“Just a little taste, please, there are a lot of different cocktails to be sampled!” he warned.

“Don’t be afraid to catch a disease, or any bacteria’s, the alcohol makes it antiseptic,” he added, with the biggest smile.

Nobody was scared anyhow, didn’t they all just received a bill of health?

Besides, AIDS was not known yet!

THE GOOD OLD TIMES!

The whole kit and caboodle used in the classroom was authentic, as it would be found on the airplanes. The bottles with alcohol came in a liquor-kit under lock and key.

Wisely the drink mixing was scheduled on a Friday.

Didn’t Pan Am stress the fact to be the most experienced airline?

This was also the moment to show those students how trustworthy (hopefully) they were.

Mister Goglia handed the key to Herbert, (the man in the class,) with the stipulation to lock the bottles into the liquor-kit and return it to him the following Monday.

“When to call it a day, is up to you. Please experiment with this stuff, have a good time, I don’t want to get any complaints. Don’t get drunk. Good night, have a nice weekend.” And out of the door he went.

For Herbert, it was his first experience of what would transpire in the future at this new career, when he became a purser, to be in charge of a bunch of females. It was an undertaking, where many men have failed miserably. And those ladies were sober!!!

The rest of the evening went smoothly along and everybody enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere to be without an authority watching. UNTIL, they boarded the subway, on their way to the hotel. How many times do people get upset when a bunch of teenagers storm into a street car, bus or subway? That was exactly the case with our animated gang. Everybody was talking at the same time, very loud, of course. Chatter nonsense and/or making stupid remarks. Herbert was standing a little aside from the rest, making believe he didn’t belong to them. Unfortunately it did not last very long, one girl shouted:

“Hey, Herbert, don’t you talk to us anymore?”

Almost every person in this compartment looked at him and he felt how the red-flushed his face.

He recovered very fast and shouted back:

“No, I am standing here and restrain myself not to come over there to hug and kiss all of you!”

A big laughter filled this cabin, especially by passengers not belonging to this group.

Arriving at the hotel, very noisy, naturally, all concerned, disappeared fast into their accommodations, leaving this establishment again peaceful and silent as it was before.

The next day at lunch, one after another showed up very subdued.

No one was seen for breakfast!

Also some sunglasses were observed!

The nearby church had a boost in attendance on the following Sunday!

Chapter 3 Stratocruiser

Six weeks training would come to an end and the day of graduation got closer. Everybody had found a place to live. Some of the girls did rent an apartment to share with two or three other ones. They were advised by other girls who had done it before them; you will not be together all the time. Schedules will make it sure. Not that it is planned, it just will happen that way. Uniforms were fitted to perfection by the tailor’s. This elite unit was ready to tackle the world up there in the air.

Speeches were delivered, diploma handed out, flight wings pinned on the graduates, by the superintendent, whose hands were trembling and pearls of perspiration glistening on his forehead. His task to put those pins on so many girls’ breasts made him very uncomfortable. Was he happily relieved to do the very last one on Herbert? You bet! And he said so in a whispered voice. His expression was visible as if a heavy load was taken off his shoulders. The sight of relieve did not have to be waited on.

Now with all this behind those newly created flight attendants, a dark future seemed to be ahead of them.

They were assigned on the very next flight, to their home town, in order to obtain a crew visa from the American embassy. They were dispensed as an extra crew member, and observed of what the real function of a flight attendant was. The same way it was planned for the flight back to the States.

Even though the training was comprehensive, it was not adequate to appreciate the full impact of what, where and how things are to be accomplished. The real training starts the moment when the first flight as a full crew member arrives. The insecure feeling will disappear with time, as it is with every new occupation.

It is not extreme initializing, more like teasing the freshmen on board of their first real flight. To ask them to do something they never heard of in training, because it doesn’t exist. The dumb expression they show finds the rest of the crew’s satisfaction. They remember their own first trip!

Herbert’s inauguration flight was to London, on the Stratocruiser, the Boeing 377. The two-deck airplane, with a bar on the lower level. Pan Am’s luxurious Clipper (Trademark); the PRESIDENT SPECIAL.

This was a weekly flight, to London, and on another day to Paris. Exclusively, first-class only, with 44 passengers, total capacity.

The cabin crew consisted of one purser and four stewardesses, or one steward and three stewardesses. They were called, “A frozen crew,” because they were always flying together, but only as long as they wanted to. A newcomer, like Herbert was, had no choice of what position to work. He was put in the galley, together with one stewardess. The galley was a compartment at the very end of the cabin. A door, which converted into three shelves, to be used for in- and outgoing items to be placed there. As long as this configuration was in use, the door could not be opened. It was a very innovative arrangement and most practical.

The steward’s responsibility was to prepare/cook the meals and transfer those onto “Rosenthal” chinaware. The stewardess put them on the ledge, to be picked up by the team working the cabin. She also picked up and stored away, returning items.

Whatever was needed in the cabin had to be requested and handed out from the galley. With a well-organized team, very little conversation was necessary. Everything was available when needed.

It worked:

“Like a well-oiled machine!”

With the introduction of the jet-engine airplanes, the “Frozen Teams” were maintained. Soon they had to be abolished, for reasons of discontent by other flight attendants, who had no chance to get prestige flights.

Herbert found himself in this small cubicle of an aircraft kitchen with his coworker, Lucy. She was a well-proven crew member, who handled the tasks and challenges of galley slaves blindfolded, left handed with the other hand bound on her back, so to speak! A real pro!

It was surely a reason, for Herbert, to calm down and relax. His worries disappeared instantly.

Hank, the purser, was a nervous type, jumpy and tense.

Lucy mentioned, “Isn’t it great to have this wonderful door to separate us, in here, from this lunatic?” Herbert agreed, but was astonished by the disrespectful attitude this girl displayed. In training, the instructor emphasized, how important the purser is and how to follow the orders given by this master of the cabin team.

Equal of how a general is ordering a G.I.

“Don’t pay any attention of whatever HE tells you, here in this galley we are our own bosses, okay?” she said over her shoulder, while she filled two paper cups with Moët & Chandon. Lucy handed him one cup and clicked hers on his and said: “Clunk!” to compensate for the silent paper containers. Took a sip of the bubblies and motioned Herbert to do the same.

“But!” he stammered: “We are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages in uniform!”

“Good!” she said nonchalantly: “Take one shoe off, and you are out of uniform, simple?”

(Many times, grooming supervisors criticized crew members, when a button was open or a tie was not straight, and called it “to be out of uniform”, like in the military!)

Many airlines adopted their attires from the armed forces.

Pan Am selected the uniform of the Navy.

Conceivable, there were only Flying-Boats, in the early days.

And:

(No Girls)

Lucy took a big sip of this expensive liquid and told Herbert:

“Open a can of caviar, it complements the champagne!”

There were several one-pound containers provisioned of these sturgeon eggs from the Caspian Sea. Herbert did what he was told, while Lucy took two spoons, handed one to him and dug deep with her ladle into the black bulk to produce a handsome portion which disappeared in her mouth. Her eyes rolled in utter delight and she mumbled with her mouthful:

“That’s what I call living!”

She displayed a big smile while she was chewing.

Herbert, who observed this display in wonderment, thought:

“So this is what I’ve got into? I don’t think there was any mention of it in training? Well, I guess reality is always different of what’s been taught in school.”

Took a spoonful, to follow the example, and made believe he knew about it all along. Who wants to be a greenhorn, novice, and rookie?

He promised himself to be very alert to observe and learn to copy what others do, who are in this business already for a long time.

What a difference, he observed, when he was an extra crew member on the previous flight and now, being a link in a chain.

He was a replacement on this trip for a crew member on sick leave.

There was no way of selecting where, or with whom, to fly.

Many years later, a system of bidding was introduced to select flights, after pressure from the union, strictly by seniority.

After dinner was served, the purser made a list of duties and rest times for each flight attendant. Herbert was assigned to attend the bar for the next two hours, in the basement. (Lower deck!) Then, for two hours rest in an upper bed. Afterwards, two hours, cabin control with needs of the pilots in the cockpit.

The upper berth, as they were called, was located above the passenger’s seat to be pulled down, for the night, after the meal service. They were used by the crew, whenever not sold, to passengers for an extra very steep charge. A stepladder had to be utilized to get in and out of these devices.

(the most awkward situations have occurred there, which will be exposed later.)

Herbert went down to the bar by means of a spiral staircase.

(Equal to the one developed much later on the Boeing 747, going to the upper deck.)

The décor was a cozy habitation with mirrors all over the place. A half circle of upholstered seats to accommodate ease of conversations, which would increase with each drink consumed. The bar itself was also mirrored, like a converted, build in, closet in a home. Even a 45 rpm, self-changing, ten records player was there. The purser was issued ten records by the company, which he had to carry in his briefcase.

(No girl pursers at this time. It was also changed by pressure of the union.)

These records were selected by some vice president of the company and disliked because of different taste, to describe it mildly. So the purser brought his own from home. This music was played at boarding in the main cabin, a wonderful gesture. But as soon as the plane stirred, caused by a strong wind or on the taxi way, the needle jumped from groove to groove producing noise in the most disagreeable way, not resembling music anymore. You could see, the nearest crew member, to the stairway, flying down to end the unpleasantness. In flight the music could also be transferred to the lower lounge only. The jumping needle had to be stopped again the moment some, even little, turbulence occurred.

(Blessed be the modern music-producing devices of nowadays!)

In other words, music was an infrequent pleasure. Airplanes are always moving, not only forward.

Herbert mixed drinks for the few passengers, down there in the bar. Luckily no one ordered an exotic beverage. To be on the safe side, he had a booklet of mixology handy just in case. Since none of the occupants there found a topic for a chat, they concentrated their attention to Herbert and took him through a third degree. It is always the same focus, where do you come from, how long are you flying, have you ever been in a crash and do you like your job? He answered courteously, they nodded and managed a faint smile but it seemed nobody listened or was not in the least interested. Only a few drinks later each one of them talked at the same time.

One traveler after another left this comfy location and climbed up to the main cabin to get some sleep. Finally the last one vanished and Herbert was glad he had survived his first encounter, to be alone with important paying guests. After all, this President Special was patronized by statesmen, film stars and super-rich VIPs.