Harry W Frahm - ABOVE AND BELOW THE CLOUDS

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.