When I was in school, I wanted to travel and my dream job was to
be a stewardess as they were called back then. I studied French, German, and
Russian so that I would know some other languages for when I landed and maybe
stayed over in another country. In my last year a job show was held at my high
school and I went to talk with the representatives from an airline. She was
dressed in her uniform and was very nice.
I explained that I wanted to be a stewardess and asked for
information. She told me that I had to be a certain height and weight, which I
was. She said that all stewardesses had to wear a girdle even though their
figures might be perfect. I was okay with that. Then she told me that anyone
who wore glasses could not be a stewardess. I was devastated, since I needed
prescription glasses but seldom wore them. I went to an optometrist to get contact
lenses. This was when they were still made of hard material and my eyes could
not adjust to them.
So I gave up my dream of being a stewardess. However, I married,
had wonderful children who have given me wonderful grandchildren and went on to
become a writer. I travelled extensively through British Columbia, Alberta, the
Yukon and Alaska, when writing my non-fiction backroads series.
I belong to a dragon boat
team and I have taken part in international festivals in Caloundra
Queensland Australia (spent four week visiting the sites of Queensland and New
South Wales then a week in Fiji) Sarasota Florida USA, (my husband and I
travelled through two provinces and nineteen states on our way there and back
home) and will be going to Florence Italy in 2018. While there I hope to visit
many other European countries. I’ve also been to Japan and China. So not being
a stewardess has not stopped me from doing the travelling that I wanted to do
when I was younger.
Just a note: my sister owned the Canadian
Tourism College in Vancouver for many years. One of my granddaughters took her
course and is now a flight attendant. She doesn’t need to wear a girdle and,
while she doesn’t wear glasses, today it wouldn’t matter if she did.
