Free Pan Am Unbuckled: A Very Plane Diary by Ann Shelby Valentine, Ramona Fillman Page A

about having enough nylons for the trip. It was cold in London, so I wore my only pair to the party. Later that night, I got a snag in them, but so be it! I’d look a bit ratty the next day in uniform, but at least my legs were warm that night.
    The whole crew—3 cock-pit and 6 flight service— went to the first officer’s hotel room. The first officer had purchased two fifths of British Ale. A couple of the crew had gone to the food hall at Harrods and had come back with a selection of exotic treats. We had a perfectly lovely little cocktail party sitting on the beds of the first officer’s hotel room. It is worth noting here, that everyone is always assuming that airline people steal the little bottles of liquor or food off the plane. Although I did know of one incident where someone took a complete roast beef home and served it for dinner at her home, it’s rarely true. Nothing could be further from the general truth.
    I was still so tired I did not want to go out to dinner…which is what they were making plans to do. To Georgia’s credit, she made me go with them. She said that it was important on the first ‘leg’ of the long pattern to get integrated into the rest of the crew. Because I was so tired— and younger than the others on the crew—everyone was very kind to me. I got to know them and they got to know me during that dinner. For the rest of the flight it just got better and better, as everyone was so cordial, patient and supportive—both flight service and the cock pit.
    Frankfurt
    The next day, we left for Frankfurt. When we arrived in the afternoon, I literally ran to Bauhaus (a big department store) to buy panty hose. We were given per diem at every layover in the local currency. This time, I took my German Deutsche Marks and bought a pair of well-made German Jeans, a cute denim jacket, a t-shirt, some socks and more underwear. It all just squeezed into my Pan Am tote bag. Now, it was perfect and I wouldn’t be cold. It was a short layover in Frankfurt. I was exhausted even though it was not a long trip. All I wanted to do was get back to the hotel and sleep.
    I was learning that this job had a physical side to it. I was going to have to pace myself if I wanted to act like a tourist on my layovers. That night’s crew party was in a Biergarten where we all drank too much beer. However, at departure, late the next day, I could not tell any ill effects of the night before on the cock pit crew. I was beginning to see that the cockpit crew lived a rough life style. Although it was wrong to make a gross generalization of pilots as a group— just as it was wrong to make gross generalizations of us as individual flight attendants—it was not an easy life-being away from home so much and in different ports constantly.
    The next leg of our pattern was the flight to Beirut. We had a completely full passenger load and a complicated meal service—(lots of special meals…vegetarian, vegan, non pork, etc.) It was hard for me to keep track of all the individual meals people wanted while prepping and serving the hundred-plus regular meals. The two pursers always made a plan for the entire trip. On the outbound trip, one of the pursers would work up front—then, on the inbound trip, the other purser would work up front. We were rotating positions on every leg. So, on this leg, I was in first class on a daylight flight, working the galley. It dawned on me that I was pretty good in the galley. I was spending time chatting up the cock pit and getting more and more excited about going back to Beirut. My mother had taken my sister and me to Beirut seven years earlier and I had LOVED it! It was, as they said, ‘The Paris of the Middle East’. The cock pit crew was very bemused that as a new hire, I had already been to Beirut. They teased me a little bit about it “Why did you even take this job? You’ve been everywhere?”
    Beirut
    Our crew layover in Beirut was at the Phoenician Intercontinental Hotel. It was