More Than a Ticket: Memoirs Flying with American Airlines from Props to Jets

Cover: The new Boeing 707 Jet.

This book welcomes the reader with snapshots during the golden age of flying from carrying mail to a time when excited passengers were treated as guests and everyone dressed in their Sunday best to board American Airlines. It is engaging and appreciated. We served the flying public with much, much "More Than a Ticket." We had time to hang coats, learn names, have a conversation, serve a delicious meal and hold babies. You will feel the excitement of times gone by and get a glimpse of how the atmosphere of air travel has changed through the years. The drama of time has created a different picture.

Part one: "My Life as a Stewardess," takes the reader on a journey with a shy country girl to the city, but she is still a country girl as she becomes a confident stewardess serving all passengers, including the rich and famous, making everyone feel at home. How did she do it? Part two: "On Wings of Time," features short stories from AA stewardesses, pilots, flight engineers, and passengers. The young and old, casual readers and aviation enthusiasts will be delighted with memoirs.

Stewardess Argie, "Am I cut out for this job?" ?They say I am Dyslexic.? "Make friends with your cognitive gifts." (Stewardess on Boeing 707 jet inaugural flight and also did public relations for AA.)

Jon, son of pilot Heath Proctor, "My father was a pioneer airmail pilot," "Dad?s AA retiree ID card, with employee number 02 on it!" (Father deceased.)

Curt, son of AA mechanic and later a Flight Engineer Roy Jacobson, "I'll never forget the smell of jet fuel." "We would go through the hangars and look at the planes." (Father deceased.)

Stewardess MaryLou, "A secretarial job opened a few miles from home with AA engineering office. I never wanted to leave." (MaryLou was on the Electra team and subsequently became an AA stewardess.)

Stewardess Audrey, "Once a stewardess, always a stewardess." (Flew as a ?stewardess? and then ?flight attendant.?)

Stewardess Gerry, "I was really nervous when I arrived because the other girls waiting to be interviewed were wearing business suits, high heels, gloves, and some were wearing hats. I was wearing a broomstick skirt and sandals." (Friend who flew on Boeing 707s with me.)

Stewardess Polly, ?Interviews are over, and besides, you aren?t the type.? (Polly became an outstanding Stewardess.)

Stewardess Joan, "Important faces stood out in the crowd." (Face in the crowd was a younger man who become her husband.)

Passenger Margaret, now age 97, "I thought he was getting a little too friendly (Taxi cab driver.)

Passenger Bob, "I don?t know what I mumbled, but when the plane started to roll forward to take off, she sat down beside me, smiled, and one of her soft hands covered my gripping knuckles, and we were off and flying." (Bob had been a passenger in two near misses before this flight.)

Stewardess Diane, "I told him that I would meet him at the gate. After we finished deplaning, I thought to myself, 'Did I do the right thing?'? (Passenger without a ride to his home near where Diane lived.)

Stewardess Judi, "... meeting President Kennedy and then my husband are hard to top! (Husband was a famous singer/actor.)

Engineer to Captain Tony, "There were no real flight simulators in those Pleistocene days, so all of the flight training was done in the airplane." (Tony was responsible for training AA jet pilots.)

I have dedicated these words with love and respect to my flying friends. An expression of appreciation for the community of American Airlines.

Somewhere in the clouds of time, we met, embraced, and parted. Moments remembered from here to eternity. ?Argie

Charities to receive % of profit: The National MPS Society, Acacia Shade, Children with Disabilities in Ghana (Africa), Orton Dyslexia Society, National Kiwi Fund, LDS Humanitarian Fund

"No one has ever become poor by giving." ? Anne Frank