Flight attendant Bette Nash: 80 years old and still serving
Growing up with the airlines —
Bette Nash, pictured here in 1958 in her Eastern Airlines uniform, has served as a flight attendant for nearly six decades.
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Bette Nash (third from left) —
"I wanted to be a flight attendant from the time I got on the first airplane," says Nash. "The pilot and the flight attendant walked across the hall and I thought 'oh my God,' and I said that was for me."
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White-gloved glamor —
When she first took flight, planes were a place of luxury -- almost a vacation in itself. It was a sophisticated party in the air, where everyone wore their Sunday best and ate lobster on real china.
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The look —
"People called it 'Charm School' in those days," Nash recalls. "They took you to the beauty parlor and cut all your hair off and plucked your eyebrows."
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Big hair, hot pants —
Around 1970, Nash explains, the look started getting a little radical, with pantsuits, bold colors, short dresses and really big hair. "At one point we even went to hot pants."
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Technological advances —
When Nash first began flying in the '50s, all flight schedules were chalked up on a blackboard, and manuals and regulations came in book form. Pictured: An archive image of incoming and outgoing flights being chalked up circa 1945.
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Food service —
"You worked harder physically in those days," Nash recalls. "We served this big meal tray." Pictured: A Canadian Colonial Airways flight attendant serves food and refreshments in the 1940s.
