Happy Anniversary

For whom? For what? 

For me. For being a flight attendant for 30 years.  

Actually, I’ve been a flight attendant for 32 years, but I recently celebrated 30 years at my current airline. Details. Who cares?  

I woke up this morning reflecting on this milestone and feeling grateful. Of course, I’m grateful for all the amazing places my job has taken me. But this morning, as I was lying in bed, I was particularly thankful that we no longer have weigh-ins. My uniform fits a little snug following vacation, and I’m not sure how much I currently weigh. Frankly, I don’t want to know. I don’t find it motivating. 

So what’s changed in the last 30 years -besides my waistline? A lot.  

When I started, we couldn’t have visible tattoos. Can you imagine? In those days, we had all sorts of absurd appearance standards. We had to wear our hair up, pantyhose, heels, and makeup. Initial training included a Mary Kay cosmetics class in makeup application, where we learned to match “lips and tips.”

When I went off to flight attendant training, I didn’t own a single tube of lipstick because I was young and naturally rosy. But I quickly learned that lipstick was an expectation. I phoned home to ask my mother to send me some because it was January in Chicago, and going outside would have been putting my life at risk. “Mom, they like red and pink. And please also send some hats. It’s freezing!” I had never experienced anything like that winter in Chicago. Uninhabitable! 

She sent me a beret (useless) and shades of pink (required). 

After successfully graduating and hitting the line, I thought my Mary Kay face looked clownish, so I switched to a nude shade of lipstick. My supervisor quickly shut that down. Running into her one morning, she said, “Paula, put some lipstick on. You look tired.” Translation: “Red or Pink. Now.” In those days, they were serious about the rules. We were scolded if wisps of hair escaped our perfect buns and reprimanded if we were caught wearing flats or a sweater in the concourse.   

While I’m sure I wouldn’t appreciate the humiliation of a weigh-in, and I am glad that I started well after the elimination of the girdle check (a pinch on the butt), I do feel like the appearance pendulum has swung a bit too far in the opposite direction. 

But, no one asked me. And after 30+ years, red lipstick habits die hard.