A RHAPSODY IN BLUE...
It's been almost 4 months since I hung up my uniform for the last time as a flight attendant with United Airlines. During that time, I have made a weak attempt to go through the detritus of 20 years employment with them. The first steps were pretty clear: empty my suitcase and totes, toss from them what I no longer needed then store the uniforms until such a time as I can get them back to the Denver domicile for other flight attendants to take as supplement to their uniform points at Cintas (most of the items--excluding the dresses--are brand new, never been worn, and are still in the original packaging).
Then the process became more complicated. What to do with the usable bags, string back packs, and other convenient instant luggage for the occasions I purchased something on a layover that wouldn't fit in the suitcase? How about the complete second set of cosmetics, just in case I got up too late in a hotel room with no time to take a shower and had to go to the airport dirty? (Only happened once--but that was enough to make sure I was prepared in case it ever happened again!) A stack of six by eight inch envelopes crammed full of the paperwork for each month's trip assignments. A small pile of greetings from other flight attendants wishing me Merry Christmas or just a friendly "Hello!" Bits and pieces of company correspondence which just got tucked away--somewhere to get it out of the way.
Twenty years! Who knew it would go on for that long?! In the beginning I said, "Ten years. Just long enough to get that diamond in my flight attendant wings." And I would be 65--retirement age. But ten years passed, and I was in good health. I liked my job. Why not stay. And then it went on for another decade.
Being a stay-at-home mom was the only other time I've been in the same place for 20 years. Those years flew by. I quit work at the library research center, delivered Harold a scant few weeks later, and started my career as full-time mother. Remember... Ross and I had agreed that he would make the living--and I would make the living worthwhile.
The next thing I knew that baby had grown up, finished a year at Brigham Young University, and I was dropping him off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo before his mission to Paris, France. The following Monday, I was at a desk in corporate America.
My feelings about my time at United Airlines, when that giant chunk of my life as a flight attendant came to a close, seemed almost identical to my feelings after 20 years at home I looked back and wondered where in the world had the years gone. Yeah, I remember wanting desperately to retire around 15 years and beyond. But though some of the days and weeks seemed unbearably long, in retrospect they whizzed by. One day I was a recently minted flight attendant who knew nothing and was just bumbling along. The next thing I knew, I was no longer the junior person on each trip. There were plenty of new people with less seniority than I had. The bad thing, I was old enough to be their grand mother! Finally when the world turned upside down with the advent of COVID-19 and it was no longer smart to stay, I bid to exit from the company with a few dollars, some insurance for a limited time, and a "retired" status.
In my mind I could just imagine how it would be when I finally exited the Friendly Skies--I would be euphoric! I would walk out with no burdens of bidding, seniority, Reserve status, or irregular operations to have to think about and plan around. I would leave and not look back! My happiness was going to be seeing Denver International Airport in my rearview mirror. Travel? Nah! I wanted to go the opposite direction of the airport.
But there was no feeling of euphoria. It was anti-climactic, to say the least. Only one supervisor was in the domicile office (at least it was one who actually knew me) and no flight attendants in sight, at all. The airport was virtually a ghost town, and the Departure board had only one and a half panels of posted flights instead of seven or eight panels. It seemed surreal.
And in the three times I've flown as a passenger since my retired status, I find I don't like being in an airport--definitely NOT Denver International. Because now, I am no one. A nobody. Just a regular person who isn't wearing a uniform--which provided a modicum of respect--and can no longer access doors and areas off limits to the flying public. I had to admit I really missed that distinction.
THINGS I WON'T MISS....
--practically transparent toilet paper in airports, on planes, and in hotels
--getting ready in someone else's bathroom several days a week
--the inevitable sleepless night before an "o'dark hundred" check-in because of worry I will oversleep
--passengers telling me to "SMILE! It's not that bad!"
--the totally abject and distressing "feel" as each airport has remodeled and taken out all the walkways and installed in their place bars and other alcoholic venues and high end shops that have given the whole terminal a feeling of over-the-top oppulence. In the end I traipsed down those once "airport like" walkways feeling like I was truly in Babylon
--living out of a suitcase
--sleeping with the phone by my bed
--the Crew Desk calling with an assignment (Jungle Drums ring tone)
--yearly requalification and the 40+ hours of computer based training that preceded it. PLUS two days of extremely stressful testing
--scary winter driving to DIA
THINGS I WILL MISS....
--association with the people I liked, although it was limited and about 99 and 44/100% of the time during my duties on the job, seldom in my real life.
--listening to General conference CD's in my car for long periods on every round trip to DIA. They helped me through traffic snarls that were criminal and gave me a sense of peace by the time I drove into the employee parking lot.
--small opportunities to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon by writing it in the copies of the Book of Mormon which I found in the nightstand drawer of every hotel in the Marriott chain where we stayed on layovers.
--leaving a thank you note for the hotel maid EVERY SINGLE NIGHT with my testimony about some gospel principle and an invitation to visit churchofjususchrist.org.
--finding "tiny treasures" for myself and gifts for others while on my layovers.
--going to museums and other local attractions that were within walking distance or I could ride a bus or board a train to go see.
--eating a simple meal in my hotel room while doing a crossword puzzle.
--some opportunities to see friends or family members while on a layover.
--the smell of jet fuel, which is like perfume to me because it means I am going somewhere!
--the respect my uniform afforded me in airports, etc. and going through doors locked to the public.
--seeing the vastness of the earth and sky from 30,000 feet and knowing all this was created by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, not only as our earthly home, but for our pleasure and the sheer joy of living in such a beautiful place. Oh the magnificent cloud formations and the patterns of farms and fields and the houses and building of cities! That always generated feelings of great thanksgiving.
THINGS I ALWAYS SAID I WANTED TO DO AFTER I RETIRED...
--get acquainted with my back yard again.
--organize my recipes and put together a small cookbook featuring the best of Nichols Family Eats
--compile a second volume to my first book "Letters of Testimony"
--update my will
--organize all paperwork, passwords, etc. in case anyone needed that information
--sort through the picture boxes and organize them in some way
--have a HUGE garage sale
--go visit my extended family meaning some of my nieces and nephews that I was close to while growing up
--clean out drawers and look through boxes that haven't been opened in two decades
--and on and on and on
Never got to spend time in the back yard because the temp was in the 90's every day and it was too unpleasant. When it finally cooled down, it was time for bed. I just wanted some hot, but not killer, days to bask in the splendor of summer. Then I was called to teach early morning Seminary. So there went the rest of the list, put on the back burner until the school year is over. That's when I will really retire and tackle that years' long TO DO list.
And that is how I flew off into the wild blue yonder after spending 20 years in the Friendly Skies. But in looking back, it was truly a rhapsody. A Rhapsody in Blue which captured all the fantasies of everything that was good about being a flight attendant for United Airlines!
BON VOYAGE to me....
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