This is the time of year I used to be winging my way south to escape winter for a week. Travel-wise people routinely book flights months in advance to get the best prices for the prime travel season over the February/March break, but years ago travel was still an unknown venture for the vast majority of people. Only 15% of North Americans had even been on a plane in the 1970’s. It took the hippie generation of young baby boomers, staying in hostels and Euro-railing their way across Europe on $10 a day, to jump start the travel industry so that flying became a commonplace experience. In the Pan-Am years of the 50’s and 60’s with the first charter trips to the Caribbean and Mexico (Acapulco anyone), travel was only for the fortunate few and the very rich. The jet-setting life of airline stewardesses was advertised in books like Coffee, Tea or Me……a line that would surely be considered sexist now. My SIL was an airline stewardess in the mid-80’s and said it wasn’t really all that glamorous….more like being a hard-working waitress in the air and trying to sleep in stuffy hotel rooms.
When I took my first trip in 1975, March break to Florida with four high school friends, we went on a bus. While a two day drive, the bus at $380, was considerably cheaper than flying, and that included the hotel room. I still have the set of baby-blue Samsonite luggage my parents bought me, not just for the trip but also for going away to university (currently in the basement as I never throw anything even remotely vintage out). 
Today the majority of people hop on a plane at least once a year and think nothing of it. It’s hard to remember when flying was a new and exciting experience, whether someplace tropical or abroad. (The whole concept of Abroad used to be considered exotic, bringing to mind an era of elegance, with ocean liners like the Queen Elizabeth and sleeping cars on the Orient Express). Now flying is just routine, often fraught with headaches, and certainly not part of the fun of going away. Unmanned check-ins and luggage kiosks, long pre-boarding wait times, luggage fees, cramped seats, no meals or drinks and a general lack of amenities have taken the fun from the friendly skies. And consider yourself lucky if no one is ejected from your flight for rude comments or behavior, as many online videos can attest. A friend of mine was so traumatized by a bad airline experience that when her husband found a great price on a mid-winter trip she turned it down because she didn’t want to have to deal with the airport. (I am imagining a future where we might be instantaneously whisked away to our destination in our own magic bubbles like the Jetsons).
I was 24yrs old when I took my first plane trip, a two-week vacation to Hawaii, a popular destination in the 80’s but expensive even back then. I flew on on a Wardair Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, a 9½ hour flight straight from Toronto to Oahu – an experience I will remember forever. Wardair was a Canadian airline company started by Max Ward in 1946 as a bush pilot operation carrying cargo from the Yukon and Northwest Territories to Edmonton, which eventually expanded into a luxury domestic and international travel fleet of aircraft. Mr. Ward believed that PART OF THE FUN OF TRAVEL SHOULD BE GETTING THERE. Wardair’s motto was luxury “Steak and Champagne” flights at reasonable prices. Here’s a Wikipedia link for more on the Wardair history.
During our long non-stop flight all 500 plus seats were treated to first class service. My sister had warned me about the initial rush of takeoff, (which I found a bit scary), but the jet was so big once we were up on the air it felt like nothing at all. The stewardesses (all female in those days) had passed out trays of candies in preparation for any ear popping. About an hour into the flight we were treated to a champagne breakfast on real china, then they passed out hot towels. The seats were spacious. All drinks were free. An in-flight movie followed, nothing I remember. One of the stewardesses, a classmate of mine from high school, sat down with me on her break and regaled me with stories of her four day lay overs in Hawaii. What impressed me most was the spiral staircase to the upper deck where there was a bar where you could mix and mingle, or just stretch your legs. Imagine a bar in the sky – very James Bond.
Later we were served a wonderful filet mignon dinner on the special Wardair Royal Doulton china with snowy white draped tablecloths and napkins, your choice of wine, then coffee and a fancy dessert. We read and rested, then more hot towels to wipe your face and hands before we arrived – at 3pm with the time change. I remember descending into balmy weather where we were greeted with the traditional lei necklace welcoming us to Hawaii. Yes, this flying was a wonderful thing – I was spoiled for life.
Fast forward a few years, and after a few cramped experiences with Air Canada (famous for frozen green peas and rubber chicken), and other airlines, I was less than impressed . Flash forward to the 80’s and another set of luggage (wheels had been invented), with a vintage-style carry so chic it once got me upgraded to First Class and salmon.
As a carry on it was pretty useless, but so Audrey Hepburnish, with all those little spaces for cosmetics and toiletries. In regular class you still got fed, (I remember a particularly stale sandwich on a flight out west), but all the frills were gone. A few more years, and Wardair was gone too…..bankrupt. Mr. Ward had expanded too quickly and people were now being swayed by discount airlines, cheap flights and frequent flyer miles.
I haven’t been on a plane in years, for a variety of reasons – work, family, medical. If there is one airborne germ circulating on the plane it will have no difficulty finding my seat. My last trip was spent in a Mexican five star all inclusive resort with a sore throat and sinus cold so miserable I barely left the room, except to gaze upon the bougainvillea on the balcony. The food was tasteless, and deficient in chicken noodle soup. (At least in Hawaii the dreaded sore throat did not arrive until the second last day although it took three days for my ears to unplug from the flight home). I do hope to travel again someday, but not in a run down but let’s cram everything into one week and arrive home sick and exhausted kind of way, but at a more leisurely pace. When you are young, cheap and basic will do, when you are older, you require a bit more luxury and space. High rise hotel rooms where you can’t open a window make me feel claustrophobic, so perhaps an Airbnb or renting a villa for a month would be more appealing. In the meantime, while everyone is talking about their trips down south, I am thinking of this quote from a delightful book by Vivian Swift, who finally put down roots in a small Long Island town after twenty years of roaming the world – When Wanderers Cease to Roam – A Traveler’s Journal of Staying Put.
Quote: ‘Travel is not what it used to be. And that’s a good reason to Stay Put.’
In the meantime I am living vicariously through travel books – let someone else deal with the crowded airports and the lost luggage.
(See the upcoming Literary Salon – Travel Books– in March).
What was your worst airplane/travel experience?
thehomeplaceweb 
In college, coming home from Bahamas for spring break we were stuck in the plane and at various points for 12 hours. Ugly
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That’s crazy…..what would it normally be 3hrs to New York or less?
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Exactly. We first couldn’t leave the airport. The we had to stop in I think Baltimore cause of weather and were stuck there for awhile. Hideous
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I have little desire to travel now. I did the days of executive travel–in and out for business, racking up miles and carbon footprint. Now it takes something really important to get me into the air. I have settled in a place that is beautiful, and restorative. I have important work to satisfy me here. I have no interest in spending my senior years checking crap off some bucket list. Let me live fully, everyday, so that I need not dangle travel as some reward for a life not lived.
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I agree, although I would like to see France and Italy, mostly for the art. What puzzles me is the snowbirds who go south for months or long stays and I ask them, so what do you do down there? The same thing they do here, have breakfast, walk, shop, read, eat supper and watch TV. I guess they have exchanged walking on the sand for walking on snowbanks, but it’s seems like a lot of money to spend to do have the same old things you would do here. To me travel would be to explore new places and see new things. That’s why I can’t understand people who do cruises and never get off the boat – is a week spent in the buffet line and drinking free drinks a vacation? While there are still some places in the world I would like to see, I can read about them and avoid all the hassles of travelling. I am content with my life and my home….not to mention my own comfy bed!
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I agree, wholeheartedly. I did get to Paris–and art and architecture were the main events. Those are things I could not do from home. As one who has studied both intellectual and art history, Paris was a special treat. I don’t have anywhere now that I have to go–though family ties to Australia may result in a trip–important for family, but with no other real draw. Maybe the issue is that I am comfortable with myself, and my situation, now in my age.
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You’re right Joan – the old days of travel were so much more luxurious and carefree – nothing compared to today, and, though I still have a few places left on my bucket list to visit before I get too old to do so, the desire is not so great, unless it was something more leisurely and less harried than the tours I have done in the past. The tours were great, pretty chock full of things to see and do – I was worn out by the last few days. My last plane trip was in 1983. A lot has changed. My worst airplane trip was the very first one I took at age 13, in 1969, on Lufthansa Airlines, when I accompanied my father to Germany, his homeland, where he had not been since he left around 1950. We had horrible turbulence going over, and for a first trip, it made it all the scarier. To compound the up-and-down and swaying feeling, an elderly Italian woman was sitting a couple of rows ahead of us and screaming the entire trip “Mama Mia – we’re all going to die!” (Nice touch.) 🙂
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LOL – what an introduction to flying, especially for a 13year old! Well, we’ll still keep that Italian villa near Florence in mind!
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Yes, she was screaming her head off Joan. The stewardesses, even a few of the cabin crew, went over to calm her down – nope, she was adamant that we would crash! I will have to tell that story in a post. Last year I had heard about international walking day, so I did a post for the last trip I took because I had two Scandinavian followers – one in Norway, one in Sweden, and I had mentioned traveling in their respective countries, so I featured that trip from 1983. This year, I’m going to do my first trip (Germany/Austria) and tell about that flight.
I think we should keep that Italian villa in mind too – we girls need to dream!
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Happy to hear my post inspired you to post!
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It did – I was just searching for the day – can’t find it in the blog. The search feature doesn’t always find it. Just Googled and don’t see it either. I seem to think it was in May sometime.
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I searched for “Norway” (should have done that in the beginning – it is May 8th – this was my last trip taken (Scandinavian countries and Russia in 1983: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2018/05/08/tuesday-musings-49/
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I loved this post Joan. It brought back so many childhood memories of traveling to Europe with my family. My mom was scared to fly so we took the QE2 and arrived in South Hampton, then hoped on the Orient Express for a train ride with our cosmetic case LOL! You are right about planes, my gosh are they cramped now..so uncomfortable!!
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Oh wow! I don’t know anyone who has been on the Orient Express! That would be so interesting to blog about. Glad I’m not the only one who likes vintage cosmetic cases.
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You are right it certainly would…except I was pretty young and don’t remember much of it though.
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My yellow American Tourister cosmetic case probably can be considered vintage by now. I bought it in the early ’60s and I still travel with it. Can’t leave home without it.
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It sounds very stylish and with yellow it won’t be mistaken for anyone else’s luggage. I used to tie a green ribbon around my black luggage just to differentiate it from the sea of black bags. I have way too much luggage for someone who doesn’t travel anymore.
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I would say it was a West Jet flight- the flight on the way there was cancelled, and I had to spend 8 hours on Christmas Day on the phone with WJ to get rebooked for 3 days later, and then I got food poisoning on the flight back. That doesn’t include the west jet flights where my luggage was lost
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Sounds like a nightmare…..I don’t hear good things about Westjet, other than they have good sales sometimes. Hope you enjoyed your England trip!
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My daughter, then in high school, and I on a flight from Seattle to Atlanta, seated in the center section of three seats, one seat occupied by a huge fat man who slept and snored and kept leaning over into us.
Of course, we asked for a seat change, either for him or for us, but the stewardess (I think flight attendants still were called that) refused. These were the seats we all were assigned, never mind that I had reserved window seats at the time of booking.
Ugh!
When we arrived, worn out and stuffed with sinus issues and no tissues, we had to find our own way to our connection to Tallahassee to meet my sister. Blessedly, she provided a wonderful winter respite for all three of us in a little rented cottage on the beach at Alligator Point. Hot salmon chowder was supper. Cold salty air was her prescription for sinus issues. Sounds of waves washing the shore was bedtime music.
I don’t really recall the flight back home.
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It sounds like your destination was lovely even though the trip wasn’t!
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I was on a cheap flight where the seats were so close that when the man in front of me put his seat back I couldn’t move. So I had to put mine back just for room. I had an elderly lady behind me that didn’t like that I did this and she smacked and pushed the back of my seat the entire flight!
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Oh, dear. Why didn’t she, in turn, just recline her own seat back?
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I kept telling her too…lol
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