Fasten Your Seatbelts: A Flight Attendant's Adventures 36,000 Feet and Below (31 page)

The impact of 9/11 also resulted in our passengers losing many familiar luxuries. Our magazine racks are now empty, and the first class newspapers are a thing of the past. This next one really hurt me, as you know, I love kids and we used to have wings for the children, but they too have gone. Our
airlines initials on our coffee stir sticks have become generic. We get catered milk only on morning flights. Sometimes the flight attendants are able to save some milk on ice so the passengers in the afternoon can have some milk with their coffee instead of the powdered cream packets. The pillows and blankets on domestic flights are gone. The most unpopular change in airline travel is paying extra for practically everything.

There used to be a lot more love affairs that started in the air. It was a lot more glamorous and exciting in those days. Most of the pilots and flight attendants were hired in their early 20s and 30s. As soon as a female flight attendant walked on the airplane, the pilots in the cockpit craned their necks to check them out. We were like candies in a jar. Which one would be the flavor of the day? Now most of the “candies” have either hardened or turned soft in the middle. Many of us are now married and have a life at home. Sometimes we don’t even see the pilots until we leave the aircraft and say a quick, “Oh, hi I’m Chris.” The hours spent flirting in the cockpit have been replaced by looking at a magazine on our down time.

Back in the day it was a privilege to fly. Passengers dressed up as if they were going out for an evening of fine dining. Little girls wore their frilly dresses, and little boys had on a suit and tie. When the airline employees traveled non-revenue, (standby) we were required to follow a strict dress code or we could
be denied boarding. Now, we see it all. Sweat suits, flip flops and tank tops are now the norm. Girls wear tops that expose half of their breasts and guys wear shorts that expose half of their butts. Our airline actually had to lower our standby dress regulations because we stood out so much when we traveled.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the restroom on the airplane. Think about it, on a jet is about the only time you won’t see a women’s or men’s sign on the restroom’s door. It’s kind of funny that in restaurants, gas stations, or in stores you wouldn’t think of using the restroom of the opposite sex. The women usually wait forever in line while the men quickly come in and out of the men’s restroom. When you are on the airplane, you don’t think twice about going in after the opposite sex has come out. Now the men know what it is like to wait and wait and wait.

The more people fly, the more they adapt to change. I see more and more pillows and blankets brought on by passengers. They know if they don’t bring their own food, they may not eat.

Change is fearful, but given time we all seem to adapt. All and all, flying is still the best way to get from point A to point B. I still look out the window in amazement.
How can this big tube stay up in the air
? One day there will probably be vending machines in the back of the airplane to replace one of the flight
attendants in coach. But, you still need two flight attendants to open the doors in an emergency; one in the front and one in the back.

With all the many changes that have occurred in the airline industry, I still enjoy my job. I want every passenger’s trip to be a good one. Flight attendants tell me they can see that I am from the old school. I believe in working hard, and sometimes you have to smile when you don’t feel like it. My momma always said, “It’s okay to be in a bad mood, but it’s not okay to take it out on someone else.”

y grandmother and I shared a deep, spiritual conversation a year before she died. After my grandfather passed away of a heart attack in the bedroom, his spirit lingered around their house for about six months. She occasionally smelled his Old Spice aftershave, heard knocks under the couch and his workshop light would come on in the evening along with other friendly hauntings. I told her, “Grandma, I always find dimes, hundreds of them.”

“You know Christi, it is supposed to be a sign of something,” she said. I knew that, but what?

Generally, I find one on every trip. I keep a special treasure chest in my closet especially for them. Some flight attendants even associate me with dimes. I can’t explain where they come from, but every time I find one, I say thank you. The most I have ever found in one day was six, four on the airplane and two in the airport. My most unusual find was in the mountains
of New Hampshire. I was squatting to take a potty break and there in the middle of nowhere, lay a bright shiny dime. My husband flipped out on that one.

Sometime later I did find one possible explanation. A flight attendant was on my flight commuting to work from Dallas to West Palm Beach. The last row was empty, so she came back to visit. It was a night-time flight with a light load.

After finishing the passengers’ beverage service, I sat next to her for a chat. As women do, we conversed on a variety of topics — one of which was her admission she could see spirits even as a young girl. I told her I have some kind of sixth sense and she said, “I know.” She went on to say that she predicted an airplane crash in detail. She wrote it all down before it happened. We shared a few more stories and eventually moved on to everyday topics.

She then looked above me and with a slight cocking of her head said, “There is a spirit with you.”

“What?” I said.
Can you imagine someone telling you that?

“He is right above you,” she said.

I stammered and asked, “Is, is that good?”

“He is taller than you and has broad shoulders,” she continued. I told her my brother-in-law passed away only the weekend before. “Is it him?”

“No, he tells me he has been with you for a long time, she continued.”

She told me his head tilted back slightly as he chuckled.
I got that; I must be quite the character for him to follow around
.

“You have placed yourself in a lot of danger, and he has been there to protect you.”

That is true!
Now all that would have been fine to hear, but she continued.

“He wants me to tell you that he is there for you.”

I said, “Okay.”

“Tough times are ahead and he wants you to know you are not alone, she said.”

My heart sank! “I have had a lot of skin cancer.”

“No, not you, a loved one, she said.”

That, of course, freaked me out!

I went home and immediately searched the Internet for guardian angels. There is an ample supply of information. One article said they are messengers from God given to each child at birth.

I also read that they can be your inner voice. I remembered all the times when I must have set my alarm clock wrong, but woke up exactly when I was supposed to anyway. It was like someone was nudging me to get up.

The last and final thing that I read was they can leave you coins to let you know they are there with you. Bingo! Maybe that is where all the dimes come from.

It has been several years since that conversation. I do sense a guardian angel in my life, or at least a spiritual presence that does guide and influence me. That exchange in the back of the aircraft was one of the most memorable encounters I have ever had.

pril 2, 2008. It was a nice day to fly. The weather the day before had been pretty awful. We were relieved when the captain said there was going to be no weather problems from Dallas to Memphis.

Our day would be a long one. We started in San Antonio with a 5 a.m. sign-in. Our first leg was going to Dallas. Then, a Memphis turn back to Dallas. The last leg would take us home to West Palm Beach.

The flight to Memphis was one we were looking forward to because we were scheduled for only 35 passengers.
What an easy flight this was going to be
.

I took full advantage of the light load. I scrambled to an empty passenger’s seat to get comfortable. After all, no one was sitting in the back of the airplane except for a young woman who was fast asleep.

As I peacefully opened my magazine, the unthinkable happened. The first time in my career where I actually heard it: the signal notifying us that we have an emergency! I immediately ran to the phone next to my jumpseat. “This is Chris,” I said trying to not sound panicked. I heard Colleen say she was on the phone too.

“Hey guys,” the captain said. “We have a problem with our hydraulics.”

The other flight attendant, Bradley, asked what was going on. I pointed to his phone firmly. He quickly retrieved his phone so we all were listening.

The captain continued, “There is no fluid in the right hand hydraulics. We don’t know where it went, but we are going back to Dallas.”

I went completely white. I know one word you do not want to hear in an emergency and that is the word “hydraulics.” You need hydraulics to maneuver and land the airplane.

I looked at the passenger who was previously sleeping so soundly: she was wide awake now. Seeing that she knowingly seemed very interested, I mouthed to her, “Are you a flight attendant?” She nodded yes. “This is the real thing,” I said.

The captain said in a calm manner, “If we need to evacuate, the signal will be ___. Do not use the exits which I call out. The
floor lighting system will go on automatically. You will probably hear scraping noises when we land. I need Colleen up here in a couple of minutes to give her the emergency information.”

Bradley, the other non-working flight attendant and I, gathered in the back of the aircraft. She was not in uniform but asked if there was anything she could do. I thanked her and said if we needed her we’d let her know.

The captain made an announcement to the passengers. He was awesome! He made it sound as though it was pretty much routine. “Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention: We have a minor hydraulic problem and will be returning to Dallas. You will see some emergency rescue vehicles meeting us on the runway, but I don’t expect there to be any problems.”

Meanwhile, while Colleen was in the cockpit, I proceeded to the window exit rows to brief the passengers on how to open the exits. Before we take off, it is mandatory we ask each person in the exit row if they are willing and able to open the exits in case of an emergency. They always nod their head yes. Now, it was the real deal. Because of the light load, there were only four passengers to brief. Each was sitting on the aisle seat.