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Coffee, Tea or Me #1
Coffee, Tea or Me?
Remember when flying was glamorous and sexy, even fun? When airline food was gourmet, everyone dressed up for a flight, and stewardesses catered to our every need-at least in our imaginations? This classic memoir by two audaciously outspoken young ladies, who lived and loved the free-spirited stewardess life, jets you back to those golden days of air travel-from the captain who's as subtle as a 747 when he's on the make to the passenger who mistakes the overhead luggage rack for an upper berth; from the names of celebrities who were a pleasure to serve (and some surprising notables on the "bad guy" list) to the origins of some naughty stereotypes—Spaniards are the best lovers, actors the most foul-mouthed. This huge bestseller, a First Class jet-age journal, offers a hilarious gold mine of outrageous anecdotes from the high-flying and amorous lives of those busty, lusty, adventuresome young women of the swinging '60s known as "stews."
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
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1443 people want to read
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December 28, 2019
This book was purportedly* written by an air hostess totally enamoured of herself and her glamorous career. Back then, air hostesses were beautiful, vapid and aspired only to alcohol, sex and marrying a captain or Very Rich Passenger they met in first class. Now they are waitresses in the sky if you can get their attention, if they aren't sitting in the galley playing with their phones.
There used to be a special regatta for air crew on the island and at that time I had a bar and restaurant right next to the main marina in town. All the air crews used to come as I played great music and would stay open until... but I had to watch out for the British Airways crew. They were alcoholics every one.
Normally a rum and coke West Indian style is fill a tall glass three quarters full of ice, then rum to half way up that and top up with coke. Add a slice of lemon and a straw and Bob's your uncle. But the British always thought they were being done out of their rum by the amount of ice we added and usually asked for two or three cubes only watching us with beady eyes pouring in the rum. The BA crew went far beyond that. It was a few cubes of ice, rum to the top of the glass and a float, literally 1/4-1/2" of coke! And keep 'em coming.
So one day there was a table of about 20 having dinner and I spilled a whole tray of rum and cokes and pina coladas over quite a few of the air hostesses in their fancy evening-out dresses. I gave them all the batik sarongs we used as tablecloths to wear and they merrily continued on.
At the end of the evening I was quite prepared to pay for their dry cleaning but to my amazement they left me a $200 tip. Next day, getting in early to clean up, there were two of them still there asleep on the tables. That's how it was being an air hostess back in the early 00s!
The book is frippery, of a time when air travel for the masses hadn't begun and was a novel and special experience for those who could afford the fare. It's not really a book worth reading but on the other hand isn't it enough that it's entertainment written by an author with a light touch and good sense of humour? 3 stars I liked it.
*Real author is Donald Bain.
Read 2008, reviewed 2019. When I say, 'review to come', I generally don't mean 11 years later! This review was inspired by Cecily
There used to be a special regatta for air crew on the island and at that time I had a bar and restaurant right next to the main marina in town. All the air crews used to come as I played great music and would stay open until... but I had to watch out for the British Airways crew. They were alcoholics every one.
Normally a rum and coke West Indian style is fill a tall glass three quarters full of ice, then rum to half way up that and top up with coke. Add a slice of lemon and a straw and Bob's your uncle. But the British always thought they were being done out of their rum by the amount of ice we added and usually asked for two or three cubes only watching us with beady eyes pouring in the rum. The BA crew went far beyond that. It was a few cubes of ice, rum to the top of the glass and a float, literally 1/4-1/2" of coke! And keep 'em coming.
So one day there was a table of about 20 having dinner and I spilled a whole tray of rum and cokes and pina coladas over quite a few of the air hostesses in their fancy evening-out dresses. I gave them all the batik sarongs we used as tablecloths to wear and they merrily continued on.
At the end of the evening I was quite prepared to pay for their dry cleaning but to my amazement they left me a $200 tip. Next day, getting in early to clean up, there were two of them still there asleep on the tables. That's how it was being an air hostess back in the early 00s!
The book is frippery, of a time when air travel for the masses hadn't begun and was a novel and special experience for those who could afford the fare. It's not really a book worth reading but on the other hand isn't it enough that it's entertainment written by an author with a light touch and good sense of humour? 3 stars I liked it.
*Real author is Donald Bain.
Read 2008, reviewed 2019. When I say, 'review to come', I generally don't mean 11 years later! This review was inspired by Cecily
April 4, 2019
I first read this book in 8th grade. I unfortunately took it to school where it was confiscated by my fascist English teacher who told me she was disappointed in me. And I in turn was disappointed in her for stealing my property, being on the wrong side in the battle for intellectual freedom, and judging my ass for a book she had never read. But I was 12 so I just glared at her and fantasized about egging her house. I feverishly searched for another copy of the book so I could finish it AND replace it from my parents' library before they noticed. I then proceeded to read it several times.
So, I guess I'm saying I'm probably biased toward loving this book. But regardless, this is a hilarious memoir written in anecdotal form of two stewardesses during the late 60's. I loved them. I wanted to hang out in their stew pad with them and listen to stories about drunk passengers and stewardess school and be-ins and cheating boyfriends. In its own way, it's a brilliant time capsule of a bygone era when airlines and air travel (and our culture for that matter) were much different and stews had to be hot single chicks. The airlines even hired girls to spy on other stewardesses as you learn in one chapter when our heroines get suspended for drinking at a party the night before a flight.
Where are you, Trudy and Rachel? I still want to hang out! My 8th grade English teacher is not invited.
ETA: I recently read an article about this book that spilled the beans that Donald Bain completely made up this story. I guess I really hoped (and still irrationally cling to the dream) that Trudy and Rachel were real. The article also pointed out how homophobic this book was. Looking back, I can see it although I didn't pick up on it at the time. I also would like to think-possibly due to my undying affection for this book-that the anecdote in question was intended to be a story about an unruly customer who was also homosexual, rather than homophobia masquerading as comedy.
So, I guess I'm saying I'm probably biased toward loving this book. But regardless, this is a hilarious memoir written in anecdotal form of two stewardesses during the late 60's. I loved them. I wanted to hang out in their stew pad with them and listen to stories about drunk passengers and stewardess school and be-ins and cheating boyfriends. In its own way, it's a brilliant time capsule of a bygone era when airlines and air travel (and our culture for that matter) were much different and stews had to be hot single chicks. The airlines even hired girls to spy on other stewardesses as you learn in one chapter when our heroines get suspended for drinking at a party the night before a flight.
Where are you, Trudy and Rachel? I still want to hang out! My 8th grade English teacher is not invited.
ETA: I recently read an article about this book that spilled the beans that Donald Bain completely made up this story. I guess I really hoped (and still irrationally cling to the dream) that Trudy and Rachel were real. The article also pointed out how homophobic this book was. Looking back, I can see it although I didn't pick up on it at the time. I also would like to think-possibly due to my undying affection for this book-that the anecdote in question was intended to be a story about an unruly customer who was also homosexual, rather than homophobia masquerading as comedy.
March 23, 2007
I LOVE airlines and airline culture and all that airplane-y goodness. I tried to become a flight attendant once and was hired and was hired by a certain AAirline in 2001 but then some stuff happened on September the 11th (pause- moment of silence - - and continue) and my dream was never realized. Somewhere after the point of crushed dreams I got a job at a bookstore and read this book. Oh, the hilarity! I think that if I had lived in the 60s then this is the life I would have experienced. Forget all that hippie stuff- this was all martinis and big hair and swingin' singles pads. Go-go boots and dashing men in skinny ties. What a glorious time that would have been to fly.
August 5, 2022
I’m sure this is REALLY dated now – this from the era when flight attendants were called stewardesses and they were all unmarried women. A memoir by 2 of them, that at the time I really enjoyed, and read several times. Yes, this is light & breezy & fluffy. But I did learn respect for flight attendants as well because they wrote about the education they needed to do the job, not just about their personal exploits. And some of the stories they tell about passengers they have to deal with and about their lives, were pretty funny. Embarrassed now to add this book to my roster, but enjoyed it at the time. Recommended only if the reader looks at it as a period piece.
January 21, 2008
Loved this book as a middle/high schooler when I dreamed of living the glamorous life of a flight attendant. Recently found out it was not a memoir written by two women at all, but a total lie written by a man. I am going to pretend that I never heard that and continue loving it the way I always did.
January 26, 2008
This was one of many "saucy" paperbacks my mother and her friends traded in the 70s as they came to the end of their twenties and wondered if the sexual revolution had passed them by. Even in its day it had a reputation as sexist, mainly because it was an open secret that Donald Bain was neither a stewardess or a woman or that he'd even interviewed flight attendants as he claimed. Not surprisingly, it's basically a man's fantasy of sexual liberation, which, one suspects, isn't all that liberating for women. But it's also pulpy fun and part of a whole softcore trend in which you could go to your average drugstore as a kid in the Nixon/Ford era and learn all kinds of F and C words you never even knew existed. (Ford not being one of them). I hadn't remembered the homophobia other readers mentioned, so I found a copy. Sure enough, there's a lot of that one F word that's plain hateful. I'm surprised new editions haven't cut that chapter. BTW, there was also a book in this same vein about wild teachers in Terre Haute IN but for the life of me I haven't been able to track down a title. Help, anyone?
December 23, 2019
Well… oh, my. Where to begin.
When I heard about a book written in the 1960’s by two airline stewardesses, I have to admit that I got excited. I imagined a fascinating memoir that would transport me back to a lost era of travel - when flying was new and exciting, peopled by glamorous jetsetters.
Well, this “memoir” ended up being a complete disappointment. The reason that I have placed dubious quotation marks about the word “memoir” will be explained later.
Basically, this is the story of two friends, Trudy and Rachel - both fairly ordinary small-town girls who are given a chance at a dream job: as flight attendants, or, airline stewardesses. With relish, Trudy - who is the main narrator of the tale - gives readers details of their daily lives, the many cities that they fly in and out of, and the many men that they date.
The main focus of this book is, undoubtedly, on the “men that they date” section. Indeed, it seems that the main purpose of getting this job in the first place is to eventually land a man that they meet whilst flying.
I am certain that if asked, “Why are you flying?” the girls would have giggled out “To find a man.”
A great number of the chapters of this book are reminiscent of a cheap dating advice column, tailored and trimmed to fit the lives of flight attendants. A few examples of chapter topics are “Interesting Men,” “Is He Married?,” or “How to Tell His Profession.”
Even sections about topics that you wouldn’t think had any relation to dating and flirting somehow become almost exclusively about just that.
I got excited when I saw that one chapter included a list of cities, and a few paragraphs of Trudy’s opinions on all of them. This excitement quickly turned to exasperation when I found that it was all about men - the review for Chicago complained that the men were too hard to find there, that Miami men were fun, or this cringeworthy review of Detroit: “They make cars in Detroit, and men make cars. We like Detroit.” Facepalm.
This little book is positively riddled with inappropriate sexism, which all seems to be quite accepted by Trudy. For example, she tells a story about a captain who is notorious for his habit of calling in new stewardesses and basically commanding them to put their breasts in his face, even saying that they must come back and do this every twenty minutes for the rest of the flight. This is all seen as great, harmless fun by Trudy, as something to wink and giggle about.
Bottoms are pinched, breasts are groped, and the girls seem to accept this with giggles and eye rolls, and a “boys will be boys” sort of attitude.
And disturbingly, when a group of girls are recounting their latest news, Rachel asks Trudy as a joke “Haven’t you been raped lately?”
Then we get to the chapter entitled “They Looked So Normal.” The very first sentence informed me that this one would be about “homosexual men and women you meet on a flight.” Inwardly, I groaned. Oh no…
Well, as you might guess by now, it was bad. Really bad.
First there are the stereotypes - that gay, or “fay,” men are more handsome and more witty. Okay, not so bad, I guess. Then comes a strange “fact” that a higher percentage of Europeans are gay, and that’s why stewardesses flying in Europe are safer. Trudy admits that some girls (I guess not her) do seem to enjoy being friends with gay men. She then says that however, in general, “none of us wants that man around.” She then tells us that “effeminate men” on their flights are normally very pleasant, intelligent, polite, and offer no trouble at all. Okay, great, right? Wrong! She then turns right around and sums this up with “But despite these apparent advantages, their very presence is unnerving and disconcerting.”
There is also an episode that is so utterly ridiculous, it is sad: Two male passengers are seated next to each other, when one of them calls Trudy over and requests to be moved, because of the magazine the man is reading. Trudy smiles, expecting it to be a Playboy (which she seems fine with). Instead, it’s something more along the lines of Playgirl, and she is shocked, calling it “awful” and “the sickest magazine I’ve ever seen.” Of her own accord, she reports this to the captain, and narrates the rest of the tale referring to the man as “the faggy fellow.” The story then becomes unbelievable - the captain confronts the man, who immediately begins making lewd come-ons to the captain, and attempts to lead other passengers into “whipping” him.
Also, I gathered from this chapter that “gay” seems to be synonymous with “pervert” here.
At the end of the chapter, Trudy wraps it up in a conclusion that does not seem to fit with her disgust and judgement at all, saying “As long as gay passengers behave, we couldn’t care less.”
Many of the tales in the book seem to ring of insincerity. For example, a friend of theirs who dated a mobster angrily refused him when he asked her to sleep with a business friend. He then makes a cold, chilling speech in retort, complete with gangster slang - a rambling paragraph of a speech. And yet, this did not even happen to Trudy.
Another chapter tells a story of a girl who always seems to have extra cash to spend, who is always going out alone. Trudy suspects that this is because the girl is secretly prostituting herself on the side - because what else, right?? She organizes a room switch with the girl, to receive the gentleman caller in a sort of sting operation, and her suspicions are proven correct. Eye roll.
Believe it or not, the book gets worse.
There is an awful chapter generalizing men from different countries. You can most likely see already that this is heading toward rampant racism, and you are correct.
Arab men are, according to Trudy, rapists with harems, and she even has the nerve to say that they are this way because, apparently, “Women of Saudi Arabia are not attractive by any stretch of imagination.” What??
There are dozens of countries included, each bestowed with a few paragraphs of ignorant stereotyping, but for Japan (the only Asian country included at all), Trudy gives us only one ghastly sentence, about “miniaturization” having no advantage in sex.
Wow.
There’s certainly more to dislike about the book and make you want to throw it across the room (I read an ebook version on my phone, or maybe I would have). The girl’s arch nemesis is a girl whose only crime is that she has enviously large breasts (and in every sentence she is featured in, her breasts are mentioned). Trudy talks about the airline’s policy of firing girls who become fat - and wholeheartedly agrees with it! She says that girls gaining weight “certainly warrant” getting laid off, because “that shouldn’t be allowed.” She also says that getting pregnant should “certainly” result in being fired, as well.
Can it get worse? Well, whether this makes it worse or not, I found out after finishing the book that it was all completely fake!
This “memoir” is actually not a memoir at all, and was written by a man named Donald Bain in 1967. Well, these laughable depictions of women and winking in reaction to getting assaulted certainly make more sense now.
And, even more gratingly, someone apparently had an idea that this book should be written, and set out to find some female flight attendants to interview and potentially write it. But, apparently, they selected the best two young ladies in the entire industry, and the interviewer “quickly realized” that they were too dull and stupid to ever write a book, or have enough wit to come up with material for a story of their lives. He dismissed them, and admitted that he then took a few of their stories, but mostly his own experiences, and fit them into a flight attendant book.
What on earth…
Please do not read this book, unless perhaps for research on how NOT to view the world.
When I heard about a book written in the 1960’s by two airline stewardesses, I have to admit that I got excited. I imagined a fascinating memoir that would transport me back to a lost era of travel - when flying was new and exciting, peopled by glamorous jetsetters.
Well, this “memoir” ended up being a complete disappointment. The reason that I have placed dubious quotation marks about the word “memoir” will be explained later.
Basically, this is the story of two friends, Trudy and Rachel - both fairly ordinary small-town girls who are given a chance at a dream job: as flight attendants, or, airline stewardesses. With relish, Trudy - who is the main narrator of the tale - gives readers details of their daily lives, the many cities that they fly in and out of, and the many men that they date.
The main focus of this book is, undoubtedly, on the “men that they date” section. Indeed, it seems that the main purpose of getting this job in the first place is to eventually land a man that they meet whilst flying.
I am certain that if asked, “Why are you flying?” the girls would have giggled out “To find a man.”
A great number of the chapters of this book are reminiscent of a cheap dating advice column, tailored and trimmed to fit the lives of flight attendants. A few examples of chapter topics are “Interesting Men,” “Is He Married?,” or “How to Tell His Profession.”
Even sections about topics that you wouldn’t think had any relation to dating and flirting somehow become almost exclusively about just that.
I got excited when I saw that one chapter included a list of cities, and a few paragraphs of Trudy’s opinions on all of them. This excitement quickly turned to exasperation when I found that it was all about men - the review for Chicago complained that the men were too hard to find there, that Miami men were fun, or this cringeworthy review of Detroit: “They make cars in Detroit, and men make cars. We like Detroit.” Facepalm.
This little book is positively riddled with inappropriate sexism, which all seems to be quite accepted by Trudy. For example, she tells a story about a captain who is notorious for his habit of calling in new stewardesses and basically commanding them to put their breasts in his face, even saying that they must come back and do this every twenty minutes for the rest of the flight. This is all seen as great, harmless fun by Trudy, as something to wink and giggle about.
Bottoms are pinched, breasts are groped, and the girls seem to accept this with giggles and eye rolls, and a “boys will be boys” sort of attitude.
And disturbingly, when a group of girls are recounting their latest news, Rachel asks Trudy as a joke “Haven’t you been raped lately?”
Then we get to the chapter entitled “They Looked So Normal.” The very first sentence informed me that this one would be about “homosexual men and women you meet on a flight.” Inwardly, I groaned. Oh no…
Well, as you might guess by now, it was bad. Really bad.
First there are the stereotypes - that gay, or “fay,” men are more handsome and more witty. Okay, not so bad, I guess. Then comes a strange “fact” that a higher percentage of Europeans are gay, and that’s why stewardesses flying in Europe are safer. Trudy admits that some girls (I guess not her) do seem to enjoy being friends with gay men. She then says that however, in general, “none of us wants that man around.” She then tells us that “effeminate men” on their flights are normally very pleasant, intelligent, polite, and offer no trouble at all. Okay, great, right? Wrong! She then turns right around and sums this up with “But despite these apparent advantages, their very presence is unnerving and disconcerting.”
There is also an episode that is so utterly ridiculous, it is sad: Two male passengers are seated next to each other, when one of them calls Trudy over and requests to be moved, because of the magazine the man is reading. Trudy smiles, expecting it to be a Playboy (which she seems fine with). Instead, it’s something more along the lines of Playgirl, and she is shocked, calling it “awful” and “the sickest magazine I’ve ever seen.” Of her own accord, she reports this to the captain, and narrates the rest of the tale referring to the man as “the faggy fellow.” The story then becomes unbelievable - the captain confronts the man, who immediately begins making lewd come-ons to the captain, and attempts to lead other passengers into “whipping” him.
Also, I gathered from this chapter that “gay” seems to be synonymous with “pervert” here.
At the end of the chapter, Trudy wraps it up in a conclusion that does not seem to fit with her disgust and judgement at all, saying “As long as gay passengers behave, we couldn’t care less.”
Many of the tales in the book seem to ring of insincerity. For example, a friend of theirs who dated a mobster angrily refused him when he asked her to sleep with a business friend. He then makes a cold, chilling speech in retort, complete with gangster slang - a rambling paragraph of a speech. And yet, this did not even happen to Trudy.
Another chapter tells a story of a girl who always seems to have extra cash to spend, who is always going out alone. Trudy suspects that this is because the girl is secretly prostituting herself on the side - because what else, right?? She organizes a room switch with the girl, to receive the gentleman caller in a sort of sting operation, and her suspicions are proven correct. Eye roll.
Believe it or not, the book gets worse.
There is an awful chapter generalizing men from different countries. You can most likely see already that this is heading toward rampant racism, and you are correct.
Arab men are, according to Trudy, rapists with harems, and she even has the nerve to say that they are this way because, apparently, “Women of Saudi Arabia are not attractive by any stretch of imagination.” What??
There are dozens of countries included, each bestowed with a few paragraphs of ignorant stereotyping, but for Japan (the only Asian country included at all), Trudy gives us only one ghastly sentence, about “miniaturization” having no advantage in sex.
Wow.
There’s certainly more to dislike about the book and make you want to throw it across the room (I read an ebook version on my phone, or maybe I would have). The girl’s arch nemesis is a girl whose only crime is that she has enviously large breasts (and in every sentence she is featured in, her breasts are mentioned). Trudy talks about the airline’s policy of firing girls who become fat - and wholeheartedly agrees with it! She says that girls gaining weight “certainly warrant” getting laid off, because “that shouldn’t be allowed.” She also says that getting pregnant should “certainly” result in being fired, as well.
Can it get worse? Well, whether this makes it worse or not, I found out after finishing the book that it was all completely fake!
This “memoir” is actually not a memoir at all, and was written by a man named Donald Bain in 1967. Well, these laughable depictions of women and winking in reaction to getting assaulted certainly make more sense now.
And, even more gratingly, someone apparently had an idea that this book should be written, and set out to find some female flight attendants to interview and potentially write it. But, apparently, they selected the best two young ladies in the entire industry, and the interviewer “quickly realized” that they were too dull and stupid to ever write a book, or have enough wit to come up with material for a story of their lives. He dismissed them, and admitted that he then took a few of their stories, but mostly his own experiences, and fit them into a flight attendant book.
What on earth…
Please do not read this book, unless perhaps for research on how NOT to view the world.
Did not finish
June 25, 2012Disclaimer: I stopped reading this book well before half-way.
I bought this book in order to read 2 sassy women's notes from a life of being stewardesses. What I found, was that Donald Bain used a small dash of their stories (and changed their names to Rachel and Trudy), a dash of his own personal flight experiences and a large dose of his imagination. Imagination. Yes, you read that right. He used his imagination [as he states, himself, in the start of the book) and stories an "uninhibited memoir" about 2 women. Two women who were used largely for their marketing appeal.
I really do not think this book should be allowed to be listed as a work of non-fiction. I want to read it though, based off the scathing reviews of how 'controversial' it apparently was when it was released. I'll just have to wait until I can convince my brain that it is not truly a memoir, but a work of fiction that is lightly sprinkled with partially true stories.
I bought this book in order to read 2 sassy women's notes from a life of being stewardesses. What I found, was that Donald Bain used a small dash of their stories (and changed their names to Rachel and Trudy), a dash of his own personal flight experiences and a large dose of his imagination. Imagination. Yes, you read that right. He used his imagination [as he states, himself, in the start of the book) and stories an "uninhibited memoir" about 2 women. Two women who were used largely for their marketing appeal.
I really do not think this book should be allowed to be listed as a work of non-fiction. I want to read it though, based off the scathing reviews of how 'controversial' it apparently was when it was released. I'll just have to wait until I can convince my brain that it is not truly a memoir, but a work of fiction that is lightly sprinkled with partially true stories.
January 8, 2020
This was the book that taught me four things about my mother:
1. Never try to sneak around with a "forbidden" book.
2. I could read anything I wanted as long as she had a chance to go over it with me.
3. Mom thought the idea of a fat lady getting stuck on an airplane toilet was funny.
4. She could tell truth from fiction, and she knew this book was totally made up, by a man! It was a good thing I didn't bet her anything, because my 13 year old self bought it hook, line and sinker.
1. Never try to sneak around with a "forbidden" book.
2. I could read anything I wanted as long as she had a chance to go over it with me.
3. Mom thought the idea of a fat lady getting stuck on an airplane toilet was funny.
4. She could tell truth from fiction, and she knew this book was totally made up, by a man! It was a good thing I didn't bet her anything, because my 13 year old self bought it hook, line and sinker.
July 13, 2018
Still fulfilling it's original intent, offering a humorous and informative look into the lives of sky-waitresses; now with the added, unintended, quality of offering a look into the norms and mores of people living half a century ago as well.
July 22, 2009
This one was a pip! I picked it up for a quarter from the library book sale. (Volunteers get first pick...) I was fully expecting the "twoo stowies" of a Helen Gurley-Brown type "Sex and the Single Girl" number, and it was all that and more. The illustrations were a bit incongruous--definitely from the Playboy School of Triangular Boobs--but the book itself was highly entertaining, and informative, circa 1967. It's co-written (tho the voices blend) by 2 women who became best friends at stew (as we say in the biz) training school, both fleeing from their respective puddle-jumper small towns. In the end, it is twoo, in fact, that the job of a stew is to land a man, albeit not a married one. But the stories of all the missed seductions, randy passengers, info of the trade and breakdown of stew & crew sociology make that era seem a bit bracing, and not really glamorous, but full of a game-ness it might be hard to imagine today. A weal womp, this one. Highly wecommended. **Except now in the cold light of day, I remember there were some fairly chilling passages of homophobia. Seem to be connected to general resentment that bums in seats are not eligible bachelors, and the tone really takes a nose dive in those passages. So for that, it loses a tarnished star.
January 25, 2008
I checked this book out because hello- every flight attendant needs to read it right? I so did not realize that it had been written in 1967 by an author who was born in 1942! its about the glamourous days of flying (they werent so glamorous then either) and i had so much fun reading it. until i got to the chapter on "the homosexuals." i had tokeep from burning the book and keep telling myself that it was written in 1967 by a really really old broad and hopefully by now her attitudes towards "the honosexuals" have changed. (her solution was to offer the homosexuals half price fares so the flight attendants would know who was gay and then they could seat all of the homosexuals in the back together.sad) other than that it was a fun read.
October 28, 2011
This was written back when homosexuality was an issue in the public eye. So if you're not open minded perhaps you should skip this book as it describes the era of flights. I don't believe this is meant to be offensive, it was just a different time back then. It gives you an idea of how the stewardesses of this time period had to represent the airlines, and the crap they had to endure with their passengers. They recount funny moments, serious ones, and risqué situations as well...for their time frame. An easy light read with short chapters and drawings that perhaps are to take up space? Take it or leave.
September 3, 2019
I am still reading flight attendant books and this one was next on my list. I have to say it was quite fun to read at times though as with others it often focused a bit too much on sex/love life/their own lives. Don't get me wrong, at times it was interesting but mostly I just wanted to see the horrible passengers and see what happens at the job. You could also clearly see that this was written when it was due to the language, the way they acted when they had someone around who was lgbt (not in a good way even calling them perverts or telling them they thought they were normal), various actors/actresses and other popular people, and others. I did like seeing Trudy and Rachel interact and also see what kind of trouble they got into. :P Also reading about passengers and what kind of training the girls received was fun.
Plus points to the delightful illustrations, they really gave the book something extra.
I do wonder if this is all truly real or not. I think I read somewhere this was all made-up, which is a shame.
But all in all, still a fun books, and I had fun reading it.
Plus points to the delightful illustrations, they really gave the book something extra.
I do wonder if this is all truly real or not. I think I read somewhere this was all made-up, which is a shame.
But all in all, still a fun books, and I had fun reading it.
July 10, 2011
I'm not sure what I think of this book. It's extremely dated, of course, and doesn't pretend otherwise, and therefore does have to be taken in that spirit, but at the same time... it's just so dated, and parts of it are, frankly, hard for a 21st-century girl to swallow.
For starters, there's the rampant sexism. It's insane. Basically reality at the time I guess, but insane nonetheless, and I'm just not sure how to take it. The book is an embellished version of truth, and I have no doubt that any number of parts in it are pure fabrication (Canoe dates with Montreal Mounties? I'll get to that in a bit.), but any knowledge of history will indicate that much of the attitudes, at least, and probably much of the behaviour, toward the stewardesses was probably pretty bang on. And that's a little crazy. I'm reasonably confident, for example, that no pilot could get away with "initiating" a newbie by having them repeatedly come into the cockpit and push a button located in such a spot as to force her boobs against his head these days. And that if one tried to grab an attendant's ass during a flight, that it would not end well for one. So the notion of being expected to put up with such behaviour? Ick.
What was also icky was the fairly blatant racism and homophobia in certain parts. There's one chapter on men of various nationalities, and it's pretty much just a list of offensive stereotypes. Maybe they were still considered at least vaguely original at the time, but now it just felt awkward, like being at a party with someone who just won't stop telling offensive jokes, but no one wants to be the one to step up and tell them to stop, so everyone's just chuckling nervously.
And then the homophobia. OK, I know that attitudes at the time were very different from those (at least, the enlightened ones) of today, but the chapter about gay and lesbian flyers seriously skeeved me out. Particularly the discussion of a particular gay passenger who was pretty roundly ridiculed when it was revealed that he was reading gay porn. Side note: gay porn, like straight porn, is not really appropriate reading material for air travel, as far as I'm concerned, so the gentleman in question doesn't entirely get a pass. On the other hand, one gets the impression, reading this book, that if some dude were enjoying some nice, vanilla straight porn on a flight, no one would object. And if that's the case, then there's really nothing any worse about checking out gay porn in that setting. (Side side note: I'm now wondering how many people's work filters won't allow them to read this post. Heh.) But when the narrator describes the material in question as some of the "sickest" pictures she's ever seen, it made me uncomfortable. As did the statement that as sucky as it is when a woman has to sit next to a rather forward individual and put up with his passes, it must be even more horrifically dreadful for a man to have his manliness affronted by the same from another man. Frankly, I don't even know which part of that statement is worse. Like I said, product of the times, and I get that, but still. I did not enjoy reading that chapter.
On a lighter note, the mounties in Montreal. I'm not upset by the stereotype that Canada is overrun with Mounties and we all have canoes (nothing else to do on a date up here before retiring to his igloo to hook up, right?). As I've suggested, there are much worse stereotypes in this book. I'm more annoyed by the complete lack of originality of it, and the sheer nonsense of it. If only they'd picked a city in a different part of Canada, I'd just roll my eyes. But as it is, I'm afraid I have to go here: Mounties? In Montreal? Really? Given that Montreal has its own police department, I think you'd be very hard pressed to find a Mountie there — unless you count the RCMP officers who go to their desk jobs in business suits. And as for canoeing... I don't think I've ever even seen a canoe in Montreal. I'm sure there are Montrealers who have canoes, just as there are Ottawans who do. But the odds of finding a Mountie in Montreal who has a canoe and thinks paddling the St. Laurent is a good date activity? I think they're pretty slim. And I'm sure the dates they supposedly went on in Boston, Maine, Seattle, etc. sound just as ridiculous to the residents of those areas.
The upshot is that while this book had its amusing moments, much of it was just too... too. But I can certainly see how it would appeal to the incredibly chauvinistic Grade 12 English teacher who originally brought it to my attention.
For starters, there's the rampant sexism. It's insane. Basically reality at the time I guess, but insane nonetheless, and I'm just not sure how to take it. The book is an embellished version of truth, and I have no doubt that any number of parts in it are pure fabrication (Canoe dates with Montreal Mounties? I'll get to that in a bit.), but any knowledge of history will indicate that much of the attitudes, at least, and probably much of the behaviour, toward the stewardesses was probably pretty bang on. And that's a little crazy. I'm reasonably confident, for example, that no pilot could get away with "initiating" a newbie by having them repeatedly come into the cockpit and push a button located in such a spot as to force her boobs against his head these days. And that if one tried to grab an attendant's ass during a flight, that it would not end well for one. So the notion of being expected to put up with such behaviour? Ick.
What was also icky was the fairly blatant racism and homophobia in certain parts. There's one chapter on men of various nationalities, and it's pretty much just a list of offensive stereotypes. Maybe they were still considered at least vaguely original at the time, but now it just felt awkward, like being at a party with someone who just won't stop telling offensive jokes, but no one wants to be the one to step up and tell them to stop, so everyone's just chuckling nervously.
And then the homophobia. OK, I know that attitudes at the time were very different from those (at least, the enlightened ones) of today, but the chapter about gay and lesbian flyers seriously skeeved me out. Particularly the discussion of a particular gay passenger who was pretty roundly ridiculed when it was revealed that he was reading gay porn. Side note: gay porn, like straight porn, is not really appropriate reading material for air travel, as far as I'm concerned, so the gentleman in question doesn't entirely get a pass. On the other hand, one gets the impression, reading this book, that if some dude were enjoying some nice, vanilla straight porn on a flight, no one would object. And if that's the case, then there's really nothing any worse about checking out gay porn in that setting. (Side side note: I'm now wondering how many people's work filters won't allow them to read this post. Heh.) But when the narrator describes the material in question as some of the "sickest" pictures she's ever seen, it made me uncomfortable. As did the statement that as sucky as it is when a woman has to sit next to a rather forward individual and put up with his passes, it must be even more horrifically dreadful for a man to have his manliness affronted by the same from another man. Frankly, I don't even know which part of that statement is worse. Like I said, product of the times, and I get that, but still. I did not enjoy reading that chapter.
On a lighter note, the mounties in Montreal. I'm not upset by the stereotype that Canada is overrun with Mounties and we all have canoes (nothing else to do on a date up here before retiring to his igloo to hook up, right?). As I've suggested, there are much worse stereotypes in this book. I'm more annoyed by the complete lack of originality of it, and the sheer nonsense of it. If only they'd picked a city in a different part of Canada, I'd just roll my eyes. But as it is, I'm afraid I have to go here: Mounties? In Montreal? Really? Given that Montreal has its own police department, I think you'd be very hard pressed to find a Mountie there — unless you count the RCMP officers who go to their desk jobs in business suits. And as for canoeing... I don't think I've ever even seen a canoe in Montreal. I'm sure there are Montrealers who have canoes, just as there are Ottawans who do. But the odds of finding a Mountie in Montreal who has a canoe and thinks paddling the St. Laurent is a good date activity? I think they're pretty slim. And I'm sure the dates they supposedly went on in Boston, Maine, Seattle, etc. sound just as ridiculous to the residents of those areas.
The upshot is that while this book had its amusing moments, much of it was just too... too. But I can certainly see how it would appeal to the incredibly chauvinistic Grade 12 English teacher who originally brought it to my attention.
February 15, 2018
Honestly, this book overall is kind of a train wreck. Apparently, when it was first published in 1967 it was presented as strictly non-fiction, but the "ghostwriter" Donald Bains specifically admits in this re-issue that it's pretty much mostly made up of stuff that came from his imagination. I find that incredibly problematic. Parts of it were funny, there was a lot of stuff that really wasn't though. A lot of the unfunny stuff was obviously just sort of par for the course at the time that it was written, which I totally get, but it still took away from the enjoyment of reading it because I don't find sexism, racism, classism or weight shaming funny.
April 2, 2013
I've been wanting to read this book for about 10 years and kept forgetting to pick up a copy. Perhaps I had higher expectations. I was disappointed to learn that Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones are pseudonyms for the two "stews" who allegedly told these stories to the ghostwriter. Much of seems to have been altered for humor purposes. Regardless, it was a fun and witty read. Kudos to the ghostwriter.
The problem is that it could have been a book about two pretty young women enjoying a fabulous lifestyle in the 1960s; they could have been gogo dancers, secretaries, nurses, teachers, or really any other career. The fact that they were stewardesses is rather inconsequential. Sure, there are some stories about flying and an occasional oddball passenger, but the bulk of the book is about parties they attended, roommates and the apartments they shared, and the men they dated.
What I did find interesting was how dated the material is, which makes it all the more intriguing. Stews had to be single and were forced to retire by age 32(!), so some had to hide their husbands' existence to keep their jobs. Some ethnic and gay stereotypes were unintentionally funny. It's a good way to see how times have changed, but not necessarily improved.
The problem is that it could have been a book about two pretty young women enjoying a fabulous lifestyle in the 1960s; they could have been gogo dancers, secretaries, nurses, teachers, or really any other career. The fact that they were stewardesses is rather inconsequential. Sure, there are some stories about flying and an occasional oddball passenger, but the bulk of the book is about parties they attended, roommates and the apartments they shared, and the men they dated.
What I did find interesting was how dated the material is, which makes it all the more intriguing. Stews had to be single and were forced to retire by age 32(!), so some had to hide their husbands' existence to keep their jobs. Some ethnic and gay stereotypes were unintentionally funny. It's a good way to see how times have changed, but not necessarily improved.
March 16, 2009
I just read in the introduction that there are 3 sequels to this book. So I went on abe and bought them. Whee!
This is one of my favorite kinds of fluff. Mid-sixties, single girls on the make, a la Jacqueline Susann. It purports to be non-fiction, but was actually written by Donald Bain, a gun-for-hire author who's since gone on to "ghost" the Murder, She Wrote mystery novels. Trudy and Rachel are composite characters who embody the "stews" that Bain interviewed for the book. There's lots of hooking-up, cattiness...everything you'd want and expect from the glory days of air travel, when flight attendants were required to be young, thin, single, and female.
One warning: this is the sixties, so be prepared for shocking, now-outdated stereotypes of homosexuals and Arabs. Married businessmen however, still act the same.
This is one of my favorite kinds of fluff. Mid-sixties, single girls on the make, a la Jacqueline Susann. It purports to be non-fiction, but was actually written by Donald Bain, a gun-for-hire author who's since gone on to "ghost" the Murder, She Wrote mystery novels. Trudy and Rachel are composite characters who embody the "stews" that Bain interviewed for the book. There's lots of hooking-up, cattiness...everything you'd want and expect from the glory days of air travel, when flight attendants were required to be young, thin, single, and female.
One warning: this is the sixties, so be prepared for shocking, now-outdated stereotypes of homosexuals and Arabs. Married businessmen however, still act the same.
January 8, 2013
I heard of this book and how it had notoriety in its day, so was curious to read it. It started off funny, then veered into some homophobia (the word 'fag' gets used a fair bit), racism and sexism. Basically, it was really showing its age. Still, it was an okay read but I was kinda disappointed to discover that it was actually written by a man (he also wrote for the show 'Murder She Wrote') and that the two female stewardesses listed as the authors were fictional. The story is that either they exist and they told their stories to the male ghost writer OR they are fictional and that the male writer either interviewed lots of airline employees for the stories or he just made the whole thing up himself. Whatever the case, it was a bit of a let down to hear that it was fictional and not actual memoir.
October 17, 2014
This book is very misleading. When I read the title of this book, I expected a bunch raunchy sluts banging guys left and right. I expected Sluts on a Plane. What I got was more like Little Miss Prissy Goes to Dinner. These so-called sluts never bang anyone. I swear. It's retarded.
I mean, the subtitle of this book is "The uninhibited memoirs..." Uninhibited my ass. They are prissy little cunts who never fuck anybody. It's bullshit. So, fuck these little cunts in their dirty assholes. Because, damnit... Those bitches need to get laid one way or another.
Other than that, its a fairly entertaining read. I mean if you like reading about prissy bitches who never put out. It did get a bit interesting when they shared a small apartment with 8 other girls who weren't quite as prissy. Those girls knew how to party, walking around the place drunk and naked. Good times.
I mean, the subtitle of this book is "The uninhibited memoirs..." Uninhibited my ass. They are prissy little cunts who never fuck anybody. It's bullshit. So, fuck these little cunts in their dirty assholes. Because, damnit... Those bitches need to get laid one way or another.
Other than that, its a fairly entertaining read. I mean if you like reading about prissy bitches who never put out. It did get a bit interesting when they shared a small apartment with 8 other girls who weren't quite as prissy. Those girls knew how to party, walking around the place drunk and naked. Good times.
September 11, 2016
Some parts of this book were amusing and interesting to know, but most of the stories fall really flat, and the total is not nearly as salacious or scandalous as the title suggested. But then again, its the point of view of a modern person. Let's just say the book hadn't aged very well and had stopped being relevant. Also, as when you read anything dating from this period, you're riddled with casual misogyny (both external and more annoyingly, internalized), sexism and homophobia. Didn't help that the ghost writer is a man who didn't even hesitate to put in the foreword that the stewardesses' stories weren't enough to make a book and he had to use his "imagination", thus both invalidating the women who owned the story and raising his status above that of a ghost writer. In other words, ugh.
July 30, 2008
Mine is a much older version, and credits Trudy and Rachel as the "authors". It just mentions Don Bain, the actual author, in a "thank you". The voice of this idiotic book does not, in fact, sound at all like a woman's. Not sure why I read this garbage. Does anyone know if the re-issue contains the offensive, hate-filled, gay-bashing chapter called "They Looked so Normal"? And I tried Googleing the "Wisconsin plane crash on Christmas Eve" mentioned, but couldn't find anything. There must be some small grain of truth in this book, but who cares? Words like "faggy" are so sickening, it doesn't matter. Especially when the individuals allegedly using these words are portrayed as such dumb c***s, vile, skanky, whorish, drunken bimbos anyway?
June 9, 2009
My mother read this book when it first came out in the early 70s and when I asked her if I could read it she said it was a little too racy for me.
When the book made its comeback a few years ago I had to solve the great mystery!
This book is dated, but it made me long for the good old days of a much more luxurious experience of plane travel. However, a few of the changes (i.e., non-smoking only flights and eliminating the mandatory retirement age for flight attendants) have been for the best.
When the book made its comeback a few years ago I had to solve the great mystery!
This book is dated, but it made me long for the good old days of a much more luxurious experience of plane travel. However, a few of the changes (i.e., non-smoking only flights and eliminating the mandatory retirement age for flight attendants) have been for the best.
July 16, 2009
I gave up on this book over half way in. It's just terribly dated and terrible read. Who cares what bars in every major city stewardesses frequented back in 1967?! Their individual stories of encounters with passengers aren't very interesting nor was the tale of their training and sneaking out. Gave up on reading it and selling my copy of it and it's sequel. (Yeah, they actual made 2 sequels to this. Maybe back in the late 60s someone actually read them.)
March 26, 2012
I first read this book in high school and I have to admit, I don't remember being as turned off by it's dated bigotry. Re-reading it recently when I found it laying on a give away pile (It's a two hour or less slam through) I was a bit surprised to realize how biased it is. Is this times changing, me, or both? Either way, it's a decent trash novel that gives you a bit of a view into the swinging sixties stew lifestyle. Ah, "innocence". ;)
March 15, 2012
actually, currently RE-reading. After watching the first episode of Pan Am, I was moved to revisit this one. I first read it when it was NEW and I thought that flying just MIGHT be my future. (it wasn't)
July 24, 2013
Kitsch & Tell!
April 26, 2021
Wow. Talk about a book that has NOT aged well. Don’t get me wrong — I can easily see why this was a phenomenal best-seller in 1967. And Donald Bain is a lively storyteller who amply demonstrates he knows how to tell rather than show. He’s a good writer of this kind of light, humorous fiction.
The entire book, however, felt creepily like one horny young man’s fantasy of what stewardesses are like. Maybe that’s because it WAS one horny young man’s fantasy of what stewardesses in the 1960s are like.
Sure, some of the stories do ring true. And are quite fun. Getting stranded in a small city on Christmas during a storm. Finding passengers asleep in the overhead bins.
But the relentless emphasis on sex — fending off grabby old men, sizing up passengers by marital state and nationality, pretending to be hookers — quickly felt weird and unreal to me. Even their 6-week training was apparently mostly spent figuring out ways to sneak out and focusing on the breast size of their fellow trainees. (I have never met other women who are so obsessively focused on other women’s boobs as these two are). And for a memoir about stewardesses, there’s a pretty shocking lack of attention to, you know, things like keeping a plane of several hundred people safe.
Here’s what bothered me the most. Donald Bain (and his editors) clearly felt it was perfectly OK to ghostwrite a “memoir” that was in fact mostly a fictionalized male fantasy. I have no problem with ghostwriters. What I do have a problem with is someone who says he is a ghostwriter but then finds his subject not sufficiently entertaining (he knows better than they do what their lives should be about), so he proceeds to invent, embellish, make up and fictionalize.
For someone in a position of social power (white, male) to do this to someone in a societally inferior position (female) is no small crime. I have little doubt that millions of readers took this as a truthful memoir and that it shaped their real-world opinion of stewardesses. (The girls in this book say they became “stews” to get dates — ask women who worked as stewardesses in the 60s why they chose that profession and I’ll bet they’ll give you very different answers).
The problem isn’t that making up funny, lusty stories about people working a particular profession is inherently wrong. It’s that when those stories are presented as truth, and confirm what people want to believe about the sexual availability of people working in a certain profession, that can have real-world implications for people working in that profession. When people in a profession find it preferable to change the title of their profession (stewardess to flight attendant) because it has become a degraded term and not an accurate depiction of their very real work, that’s a problem.
Yes, Donald Bain is a good storyteller and there are some big laughs. But the fact that he felt it was OK (not just OK, but a great idea) to write an introduction to the revised edition — so he could make it clear that HE wrote it — made me shake my head.
The entire book, however, felt creepily like one horny young man’s fantasy of what stewardesses are like. Maybe that’s because it WAS one horny young man’s fantasy of what stewardesses in the 1960s are like.
Sure, some of the stories do ring true. And are quite fun. Getting stranded in a small city on Christmas during a storm. Finding passengers asleep in the overhead bins.
But the relentless emphasis on sex — fending off grabby old men, sizing up passengers by marital state and nationality, pretending to be hookers — quickly felt weird and unreal to me. Even their 6-week training was apparently mostly spent figuring out ways to sneak out and focusing on the breast size of their fellow trainees. (I have never met other women who are so obsessively focused on other women’s boobs as these two are). And for a memoir about stewardesses, there’s a pretty shocking lack of attention to, you know, things like keeping a plane of several hundred people safe.
Here’s what bothered me the most. Donald Bain (and his editors) clearly felt it was perfectly OK to ghostwrite a “memoir” that was in fact mostly a fictionalized male fantasy. I have no problem with ghostwriters. What I do have a problem with is someone who says he is a ghostwriter but then finds his subject not sufficiently entertaining (he knows better than they do what their lives should be about), so he proceeds to invent, embellish, make up and fictionalize.
For someone in a position of social power (white, male) to do this to someone in a societally inferior position (female) is no small crime. I have little doubt that millions of readers took this as a truthful memoir and that it shaped their real-world opinion of stewardesses. (The girls in this book say they became “stews” to get dates — ask women who worked as stewardesses in the 60s why they chose that profession and I’ll bet they’ll give you very different answers).
The problem isn’t that making up funny, lusty stories about people working a particular profession is inherently wrong. It’s that when those stories are presented as truth, and confirm what people want to believe about the sexual availability of people working in a certain profession, that can have real-world implications for people working in that profession. When people in a profession find it preferable to change the title of their profession (stewardess to flight attendant) because it has become a degraded term and not an accurate depiction of their very real work, that’s a problem.
Yes, Donald Bain is a good storyteller and there are some big laughs. But the fact that he felt it was OK (not just OK, but a great idea) to write an introduction to the revised edition — so he could make it clear that HE wrote it — made me shake my head.
June 9, 2021
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for frothy late 1950s/early-to-mid 1960s novel. I like the glimpse into the past, the gentle humor, the lady-like and gentlemanly manners of the protagonists. This novel had very little of that, but it was still pretty fun to read. It mainly made me long for the days when airlines treated their customers like valuable commodities, not chattel--it's no secret that flying these days just sucks, despite the high cost of tickets.
This novel is simply weird and marvelous in its own way. First, it was billed as a "memoir written by two airline stewardesses," but in reality, the author was a man named Donald Bain. He's mentioned only in the dedication of the book. Apparently, the publisher hired two hotties to pose as the authors, Trudy and Rachel, for press junkets. Bizarre. Bain had tried ghostwriting a memoir for stewardesses, but their stories weren't that great, so he decided to make stuff up and the stuff he made up was pretty hilarious and believable. This book is raunchy, no doubt, and so, SO very un-PC. Still and all, it's a snapshot into history, which is why I like novels from this era, though I like the early 60s better. This book was written in 1967, which is too close to the "groovy era" that bleeds into the 1970s, a time period I detest. Hippies annoy me to no end, and they haven't gotten any better as they've aged.
This book was an easy read with funny, naughty illustrations, a good start to summer fun.
This novel is simply weird and marvelous in its own way. First, it was billed as a "memoir written by two airline stewardesses," but in reality, the author was a man named Donald Bain. He's mentioned only in the dedication of the book. Apparently, the publisher hired two hotties to pose as the authors, Trudy and Rachel, for press junkets. Bizarre. Bain had tried ghostwriting a memoir for stewardesses, but their stories weren't that great, so he decided to make stuff up and the stuff he made up was pretty hilarious and believable. This book is raunchy, no doubt, and so, SO very un-PC. Still and all, it's a snapshot into history, which is why I like novels from this era, though I like the early 60s better. This book was written in 1967, which is too close to the "groovy era" that bleeds into the 1970s, a time period I detest. Hippies annoy me to no end, and they haven't gotten any better as they've aged.
This book was an easy read with funny, naughty illustrations, a good start to summer fun.
January 19, 2023
Very early on the authors used the f-slur and I cringed, but the book was from the 60s and while I might wish we live in a perfect world, I could move past one mistake. HOWEVER.
I read the 2003 re-release. A little updating should have been a given, and yet I found chapter after chapter of misogynistic trash. The final straw that led me to throwing this book in a recycling bin was when gay men were referred to as perverts. I can't believe people ever thought this kind of thing was funny.
I read the 2003 re-release. A little updating should have been a given, and yet I found chapter after chapter of misogynistic trash. The final straw that led me to throwing this book in a recycling bin was when gay men were referred to as perverts. I can't believe people ever thought this kind of thing was funny.
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