Thursday, June 28, 2007

Coffee, Tea or Me?

Author: Trudy Baker, Rachel Jones, and Donald Bain
Published: June 3, 2003 (Penguin)
Category: Memoir
Rating: 6/10

Remember that scene on Austen Powers where he wants the "sexy stewardesses" and the flight attendant tells him that they're not called that anymore? This book recounts the adventures of two sexy stewardesses from the golden age of flying, when in-flight cocktails didn't cost $5 a pop, passengers dressed up for the flight, and gourmet meals came standard.

The majority of passenger stories involve sexual advances made, the worst being one that involved a man requesting a stewardess and having his member out and ready for some TLC from her. Of course, sexual harassment wasn't limited to passengers. Some captains and their flight crew hazed newbies with a trick that resulted in the stew's bosom resting on the captain's head every half hour for about a minute. Maybe that didn't happen, but I believe that that kind of behavior definitely went on back then. The girls accepted it as part of their job, but in today's politically correct world, lawsuits would be flying faster than greased monkeys.

The parts where Trudy and Rachel are telling their stories are the best. But some parts go off in totally different styles, like where they categorize the different kinds of passengers who hit on them and I found that I skipped reading them. Bain is a ghost writer, so I'm wondering which parts are his, and I'm really guessing that those non-anecdotal sections come from him.

The first half of the book is really interesting and funny, but I found that the second half wasn't as engaging. I just enjoyed getting a glimpse into a time when air travel was far different than it is today.

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