Fun
Knit to This: Fly Girl
Dear Ann,
This week, the writer Ann Hood has been keeping me company. I’ve been listening to the audiobook of her just-published memoir, Fly Girl. It’s a memoir of the author’s time as a flight attendant for TWA, starting in the late ’70s, as the glamor of air travel started to fade, due to deregulation and other economic and social changes.
Fly Girl is a wonderfully entertaining mix of insider storytelling (if you’ve never heard the words “cat” and ”breastfeeding” in the same sentence, buckle your seatbelt). A twist on the salacious legend of the Mile High Club had me hitting the pause button and going, “WHAT!”
The wide-eyed Ann Hood saw it all, or saw plenty, while doing a physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding job, and wearing heels, makeup, and a snappy Ralph Lauren uniform. And it’s not all “Coffee Tea or Me?” There’s also the story of commercial aviation, and the experience of women in aviation and in America. I’m learning cool things. (Here’s where I confess that I have never looked at a Boeing 747 and thought “how beautiful,” and I have no idea what a Lockheed L-1011 even is. Ann Hood has me googling for images!)
My own first flight, in 1977, was on good old Icelandic Airlines, with a copy of Let’s Go Europe zipped into my hot pink carry-on bag, a Samsonite of the pre-rollerboard era (you just lugged it, like in an old movie). I’m sure it was nothing like TWA first class, where Ann Hood toiled on transatlantic and transcontinental flights. Although no chateaubriand was carved on my first flight—or any flight since then—the rich detail in Fly Girl chimes with my own memories. It’s fun, and at times uncomfortable, to be reliving that era through the eyes of another woman of my generation. I’ve left out of my own narrative many of the belittling things we had to ignore, or tolerate with a smile.
I’m at the halfway point, soaring through the chapters, which are read by the author, whose voice is warm and clear. It often sounds like she’s on the verge of laughter, or she’s raising her eyebrow. It’s good fun. I can’t wait to hear what happens next, and how this chapter of her life drew to a close as her writing career took off.
Superfluous fact: Ann Hood is a knitter! Many MDK readers will know her 2008 novel, The Knitting Circle. I won’t spoil that one for those who don’t yet know it, but it’s based on a true story of unbearable grief and a Rhode Island yarn shop. Ann Hood is an excellent writer, unflinching and ultimately hopeful. I’m pleased to know her a little, and tickled that she’s currently knitting a temperature blanket!
Recommendation: Give Fly Girl a listen, or a read.
Love,
Kay
Sounds like a good one, thanks Kay! I’ve added it to my Libby wishlist
I’m a big Ann Hood fan and finished the Knitting Circle LAST NIGHT! I’d also recommend The Book That Matters Most. I live near and work in Rhode Island and her books are rich in specific descriptions of the area. So much fun knowing exactly the streets she is talking about.
Hmm- looks like my career as a sky goddess spans the same time frame as Ms Hood’s. Although I was at a different airline, I too know the “cat” / “breastfeeding “ story. I wonder if she knows the “Detroit “ / “body-under-the-bed” story?
Thanks for this recommendation. I also love a 747, and really miss that special feeling of being “upstairs”.
So many fun or poignant allusions here: Ann Hood, Coffee,Tea or Me (what an eye-opener that was), Let’s Go Europe, the pink Samsonite carry-on (so akin to my bright red American Tourister-I kept that thing For-ever.). Looks like I will also be using my library Libby list. Maybe for my next flight! Thank you, Kay! P.S. I still have Pan Am and Air France free accessories from those long ago cross-Atlantic flights. The only thing you get free these days are the cocktail napkins.
Red American Tourist luggage,Yes! I still have my matching set–given to me by my big sister one Christmas with the hope that I would finally “run away from home.”
I wondered if she was the same Ann Hood who edited Knitting Tales, a book I have and love
Catherine, you are right about Knitting Yarns (2013) and Ann Hood. She also wrote Knitting Pearls (2015). Both are wonderful books for knitters!
Whoops. Knitting Yarns. Not Tales.
I want to try listening to audio books while knitting. How do I find them? I don’t have Amazon audible or any paid source. TYIA
Karyn
Big library evangelist here! Check if your library system has the Playaway format. Self contained tiny audiobook device, takes 1 AAA battery and earbuds/headphones. Single purpose device, will not buzz, beep or ring. No distractions. Put your phone away, listen, and knit.
If your library doesn’t have Playaways you can recommend purchases. Libraries need more engagement from patrons so they can serve more people.
Thanks Deepa;) My younger daughter is a library evangelist also! I probably should have asked her first Lol
I use an app called Libby through my local library. I think it is widely accessible.
Thank you both! I’ll check out my local library:-)
Check with your local library. Many libraries now have audible books that you can check out and listen to by downloading to a device. You may need to have a specific app but your library can advise and help you.
Thank you for review! My first flight was a PSA in California in 1972 at 15. I was so nervous I could not swallow my 7-up, but my mom made sure I dressed very nicely.
PSA! The entire radio jingle has just leaped into my mind. “How’re you going to keep them down on the ground, after they’ve flown PSA?” I will spare you the rest. 😉
Oh ear worm! And the other one, “PSA is the best in the west.”
Thanks that was great!
My first flight was a trans Atlantic one from NY to Paris when I was 6 months old. Then after years of flying I married a pilot. Know all to well what happens on flights. Looking forward to reading Ann Hood’s book. Also her other books on knitting.
Air France from New York to Paris. High school trip. Freshman year. I had to get a passport, purchase a real suitcase and make several wardrobe pieces for travel. The school uniform was not going to be making the journey. The new 747 had a double decker cabin with a spiral staircase. So fancy. The people across the aisle were “mile high club” participants. It was a night flight. They were fairly discrete. Still, assuming the 15 high school girls on a trip to Paris were actually sleeping…
When I was very young, my brother’s bedroom window opened onto the front porch roof. I would lie there under the branches of a huge maple tree and watch for planes to soar overhead. Plane travel seemed so exotic and exciting.
Yes! In the 40s, we used to run outside for a look when we heard a plane fly over. The pilots in the Air Core based nearby could fly low enough (called ‘buzzing’) over their family’s house and drop messages to them. I still have a weighted yellow streamer my father sent to his parents asking them to pick him up at the air field.
When the 747 debuted, pilots called it “the aluminum overcast.” 🙂
Ah, the 70s. I flew to Italy with a friend in 1972, right out of high school, such an adventure! And in those days the whole back third of the seating was the smoking section, I remember walking through a grey cloud on the way to the restroom.
I met Ann Hood at an author’s talk in Columbia county in upstate New York. She was doing a reading from “The Italian Wife”, which had just come out. I was knitting a lace scarf and she walked right up to me and paid my work the loveliest compliment. I’m sure she doesn’t remember it, but I was so touched by her thoughtfulness.
And, she’s a terrific writer!
Can’t wait to read this one! Ann is a great writer. My first flight was 1974. I wore a pantsuit made by my mother. I was traveling from Dallas to Midland, Texas. At the time it was the closest we could fly to Marfa, TX. That was our home base for the summer. My parents walked me out to the airplane. Stairs were rolled up for us to enter. I was on a trip with other nursing students to give immunizations along the Rio Grande River!! Great memories!! My BFF became a flight attendant for American Airlines!! Always loved hearing her stories!!! Thanks for this edition!
Sweet letter Kaye! Loved it!
The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Nell McShane Wulfhart, How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 ft is much less misty eyed. It’s the story of how women changed the Most sexist workplace in the US.
Ads for Indian Air still read much like 1960’s United ads.
A huge thank you to those who decided to be more than “sky girls”.
My first flight at age 11 was on a Pan Am to Los Angeles in thrvearly 60’s, the first leg of my family’s flight to our new home in the Marshall Islands. I was smitten by the glamour of the flight attendants and lived that my Barbie had a “stewardess” outfit. As i got older I realized that these women had tough jobs. I just bought the audio book of this memoir and cant wait to start listening!
Unfortunately the Purple Purl in Toronto has closed.
Thank you for embedding the author interview, which was thoroughly delightful! Though I’m sure I would have come across Fly Girl sooner or later, I never would have thought to look for interviews. And added bonus that it was moderated by her friend Laura Lippman, a new-to-me author!