At the entrance of this small office building, being the headquarter of this giant airline, was a poster instructing arriving flight attendants students to proceed to classroom X.
Nine AM sharp. An instructor showed up and gave a short, very short welcome speech followed by handing out a massive amount of papers to be signed. First and most important, among others, was to join the Transport Workers Union. Health insurance and pension plan to mention a few. Never mind the advice not to sign any papers without reading them first. That’s theory! After a long time, nobody cared anymore and kept signing document after document. Nobody dared to question the new employer of their credibility. Most of it was newfangled material for those Europeans. Much later, it became apparent how important these papers were and all of them turned out to be beneficiary to those applicants. After all, the biggest step, to a new future, had been done already. It seemed to treat foreigners as people who have always been here and are comprehensible familiar with the American way of life. On the other hand, Americans appear to believe, when in another country, the whole world speaks and understands English.
–Surprise!–
“It ain’t necessarily so!”
One has to understand the apprehensive emotion of these young people in this classroom. Most of them have been for the very first time, in their lives, outside of their homeland. On top of it, they are alone. The group from England had at least no difficulties with the language, besides the different pronunciation, speak accent. The German part of this party had some obstacles, because their school English was very different from the way the folks speak in New York. In the very first days, two girls from Germany had to call it quits. They were not able to follow the fast pace of instructions and when asked questions they were unable to answer. Back home they went!
Now this class consisted of 22 girls and one guy, Herbert. He had no problems, with his experience, for two years, to get used to American-English.
The first three days were conducted by an elderly lady, a registered nurse, all dolled up in her white outfit with a high pitched vocal sound, looking somewhat anorectic. Where Pan Am had found her? Who knows! She turned out to be a warmhearted likeable spinster with a different view of the world as most people will experience it. A nanny type who would fit perfectly in the household of the British Crown at Buckingham Palace, having the unfortunately task to teach children of a lower class. Her attitude was like being on a high situated judge’s bench talking down to a crowd of nitwits, which was nothing but a front of a person with an inferiority complex. This group of students in her class was amused by her way of explaining things, like the way to maintain healthy body maintenance. She knew that everybody in her class was from Europe and it seems to be her perception people over there are still living in medieval times. Many times one looked at another with a big smirk, when she produced a completely erroneous proclamation, like: “Don’t drink milk outside of the United States!” Good advice, she forgot, all classmates had grown up on milk in other countries. (And lived!)
Nobody had forgotten, this instructor had the power to terminate any student, therefore everybody was careful not to comment on anything adversely. After all, they knew, it was only for three days with this LADY.
Among other subjects she advised the eager listeners how important it is to shave the armpits. And yes, that includes the gentleman in this class, she declared with a face of obvious disgust. Who knows what experience she must have had with men, real or imaginative? Amazing how painful it seemed to be for her to talk of those things, being a nurse. One would imagine all nurses have experienced worse situations in reality, so talking couldn’t be so painful. But in those days many subjects where taboo. Not like nowadays where everything in in the open and will be discussed even on television, like: “Dr. Oz or The Doctors.”
Regardless, she continued to talk about shaving. It is imperative to shave the legs, but the man in this class is excused, she announced with a big smile, exposing her impeccable dentures. She talked about her recent travel in Europe where she had noticed a considerable number of women with unshaven legs. It wouldn’t have bothered her too much, but those females wore nylon stockings, utterly repulsive and she emphasized it by making a face like she had taken an enormous bite out of a lemon. Her whole body was shuddering in disgust. Everybody feared she would vomit any moment but they had to fight very hard not to show any enjoyment.
A knock at the door, a container with coffee, creamers, and sugar, paper cups, was delivered.
Exactly the way it was provisioned on the airplanes.
“Short recession,” she announced and continued to give information where to find the rest rooms on this floor and lit up a cigarette. Nobody believed their eyes seeing her smoking. Miss Mazoor (The classmates had christened her “Miss Razoor,” after the lesson of shaving different parts of the body), smiled and explained how unhealthy this bad habit was and permitted her students to smoke also. (After all it was at a time when TV adds by cigarette companies were abundant. Doctors endorsed their favorite brands and the huge advertisement of a “Camel” cigarette smoking face, puffed gigantic clouds of vapor over Times-Square.)
Her whole attitude had changed all of a sudden into a pleasant jovial very likeable lady. She sat with her students as if they had been friends for a long time. They were on an equal level, all the way. Only to return, after the break, to the same old authority spinster, she had been before.
This was for the European members the strangest experience they had ever encountered with a teacher. It was another image to grasp the American way.
Another topic in those three days of medical education, for first aid, were the comprehensive instructions given to aid a child birth. Every flight attendant must be able to replace a midwife. Miss Mazoor had developed a routine to demonstrate the step by step procedure to follow when a pregnant woman becomes a mother. It happens often on airplanes that a sudden urge of an unborn occurs to enter this world. The reason is the drop of air pressure at high altitudes in the cabin. It can also be observed to transpire at times of hurricanes when the same condition is present.
Before she initiated her demonstration of a child birth, she asked her class who had witnessed such an event. Just a few girls put her hands up and so did Herbert. When he was questioned how and where, he explained to have been present at his daughter’s birth. This was, however, not true at all. He figured it would ease the tension for the girls, as he would be looked at as an expert in this matter. His wife had told him so many times of this important event, he could have been there at such a significant experience for a young couple. Those topics were not discussed openly at the time when this happened. None of the girls were married as one requirement to become a stewardess, which did not apply to male flight attendants.
Miss Mazoor put a chair on a table with the backrest down, where the two legs up in the air representing a woman in such a position, which triggered a nervous giggle by some girls. She draped the upper legs of the chair with bed linen, which were provisioned on long haul piston airplanes with upper and lower berth. A play doll was used to represent a new-born baby. Newspapers and an aluminum pan (containers where the prepared food was delivered by the caterers), were put aside to hold the afterbirth for a later exam by a doctor at the next airport, where an ambulance would be standing by to transport mother and the new-born child to the nearest hospital. The ambulance will be ordered in advance by radio transmission.
Also the first aid kit was present, which contained several twain threats and scissors to bind and cut the umbilical cord.
With all the paraphernalia handy, the simulated birth of the play-doll could begin.
She