This is going to be a catty post, so I'm just going to be right up-front about it. Plus, this is my blog and I don't have to be one bit politically-correct if I don't wanna.
On my mid-morning flight from LaGuardia to Norfolk, Virginia, for a conference, the flight attendant was - I swear - at least 70. Or a not-very-well-preserved 60, maybe. Now, I once thought this was a-OK, not giving the old heave-ho to someone over the age of 30 who had a calling to serve people in the skies. But, I have to say, I'm over it. Bring back the young, perdy thangs (men including, of course) that used to hand out peanuts on an airplane.
I know that's ageist of me, but I can't help it. Speaking as one who is flying headlong into "geezerdom," I believe I have some credibility on this issue. I want my flight attendents young and hip looking, not tottering down the aisle and making the landing announcement for "Nor-fork" in a halting voice. Give me those cute, sassy stews from the early days. That's what a flight attendant is supposed to be. (And none of this Hooter's Air stuff, either. You know what I mean.)
If the coot-attendants were, say, friendlier or more helpful ("Here you are, Hon. Is that enough gin in that drink, or do you need another little bottle?"), well, maybe OK. But the oldsters are just as rude and uncaring as the whippersnappers. Point: If you're my age or older or even 20 years younger, find some other profession. I mean it. There are other ways to earn travel miles than by rolling your Zimmer frame up and down the aisle of an airplane all day.
So, airlines! Make those uniforms snappier (the ones from the 60's and 70's were pretty way-out cool) and bring back the young'uns. I deserve to be served by cute fly-girls/guys. I can get the bum's-rush by someone in my own age bracket any old time.
On my mid-morning flight from LaGuardia to Norfolk, Virginia, for a conference, the flight attendant was - I swear - at least 70. Or a not-very-well-preserved 60, maybe. Now, I once thought this was a-OK, not giving the old heave-ho to someone over the age of 30 who had a calling to serve people in the skies. But, I have to say, I'm over it. Bring back the young, perdy thangs (men including, of course) that used to hand out peanuts on an airplane.
I know that's ageist of me, but I can't help it. Speaking as one who is flying headlong into "geezerdom," I believe I have some credibility on this issue. I want my flight attendents young and hip looking, not tottering down the aisle and making the landing announcement for "Nor-fork" in a halting voice. Give me those cute, sassy stews from the early days. That's what a flight attendant is supposed to be. (And none of this Hooter's Air stuff, either. You know what I mean.)
If the coot-attendants were, say, friendlier or more helpful ("Here you are, Hon. Is that enough gin in that drink, or do you need another little bottle?"), well, maybe OK. But the oldsters are just as rude and uncaring as the whippersnappers. Point: If you're my age or older or even 20 years younger, find some other profession. I mean it. There are other ways to earn travel miles than by rolling your Zimmer frame up and down the aisle of an airplane all day.
So, airlines! Make those uniforms snappier (the ones from the 60's and 70's were pretty way-out cool) and bring back the young'uns. I deserve to be served by cute fly-girls/guys. I can get the bum's-rush by someone in my own age bracket any old time.
3 comments:
I am so with you on this. As the long intercontinental flights (as I often take) are professionally desirable and awarded by seniority, I have seen this at its worst. A group of grand mothers trying to wrestle a heavy cart down a thin, moving isle, is not pretty. Many is the time I have gotten up and offered my help as they looked so distressed. Their true function, to be of service in an emergency, seems very unlikely. This is one situation where a triple header of political correctness (the feminists, unions and age concerns) adds up to STUPID (and I am a union person). This seems to be, mostly, an American situation, as my last trip on Air France was staffed by heart breakers (for an old guy like me).
yer i can agree with these statements . You'd think it would be a yound persons only game. They need so much energy to do that job too with walking up and down all the time. Glad it wasnt long haul or you might have had to carry the old dear off the plane.
question, what doesn bum's-rush mean?
There seem to be a lot of gay men too. Who always seem to have their own in-jokes from which the passengers are excluded.
I haven't seen any really old ones though. Maybe we're a bit behind the states in that respect.
I was a bit concerned though, getting on the plane to go on holiday, to see the captain studying a map.
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