In the early 1970s Normal resident Kathi Davis had just graduated with a degree in psychology and needed to start searching for jobs.
Davis turned to her friend who was also job hunting post-college and her friend said, “We ought to find a job, a fun little job we could do for a few years until we have enough money to go to grad school.”
Davis’ friend then recommended applying to airlines.
“Well,” said Davis, “what she didn't know was that I was terrified of flying.”
Fearful flight attendant
Davis’ debut book The Closest Exit May Be Behind You is a memoir about being a flight attendant who is afraid of flying.
Davis said she thought maybe she could be an airline ticket agent, that way she would be able to stay on the ground. After a traumatic flight at 8 years old, Davis did not want to go on a plane again.
Shortly after applying to jobs, Davis said she landed an interview with Delta Airlines.
“And my mother said, ‘Well, now what are you going to do? Are you going to tell them the truth that you're scared of flying?’ And I said, ‘Well no, this is my best opportunity to get started on a career.’ So that's how it began, out of necessity,” Davis said.
Davis said in the 1970s it was common for women to go to college, but a lot of women typically got married, had children and had short careers.
“The norms of the 50s and 60s were still hanging on,” Davis said.
During the same era, Davis said voices were rising that said, “Hey, that's not the only way to go.”
“I was simultaneously appalled and attracted to those other voices. So I had one foot in each camp, really.”
Those camps being, living a married-with-children life, and a career-driven life.
1970s flying standards
The first flight attendant crews were all men until the 1930s. During the 1940s and 1950s, crews gradually shifted to being all-female, and the job eventually became synonymous with women.
“[A] huge percentage of travelers were men, and so they expected a certain level of attention,” Davis said.
There were certain beauty and social standards that flight attendants had to adhere to until male attendants were allowed back into Delta in 1973.
“We had weight checks before every flight [and] we had to wear girdles,” Davis said. “And you have to realize I was 110 pounds. I wasn't really sure what a girdle was supposed to do for me, but [the] supervisor would flick her finger on the side of my hip.”
Davis added there were height minimums and weight maximums. “You had to be attractive. The advertising slogans of that day were very misogynistic.”
Flight crew beauty standards are still around. Until 2019 female flight attendants were required to wear makeup, some airlines still require it as part of the uniform.
Other aspects of the flying industry have slightly changed over the years.
Davis said she used to take pride in graciously serving hot meals to 100 passengers.
“And then by the time I left, we were selling salads and box sandwiches from a cart.”
9/11
Davis retired from Delta Airlines in 2002 and continued to fly for three more years.
Davis was not working the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and said it did not influence her decision to retire from Delta less than a year later.
“My husband was still alive at that point, and he was much more concerned about it than I was given my background of fear of flying. It was just such a monumental one of a kind event.”
Three days after 9/11, Davis had to go back up in the air in a plane that usually carried about 200 people, but that day she said she had only 12 passengers.
“And they were all very, very nervous,” Davis said. “And we had a National Guard military member with a rifle standing next to the person who was boarding the passengers. It was like a flip side in a science fiction novel or something.”
Davis said after 9/11 there were many changes in security, “but gradually the environment on the airplane went back to sort of a quasi-normal.”
The Closest Exit May Be Behind You
Davis’ experiences as a flight attendant can all be found in her debut memoir The Closest Exit May Be Behind You.
The title was a struggle to come up with, according to Davis.
She said she started to think about the safety demo that happens on every flight, and thought “the closest exit may be behind you” was an interesting concept.
“It's sort of a philosophy of life,” Davis said. “Don't forget to look back. There are lessons to be learned from past experiences, and your best escape may be something that happened in the past.”
Davis’ book The Closest Exit May Be Behind You is available at The Garlic Press in Normal, the McLean County Museum of History gift shop, Ryburn Place in Normal and on Amazon.
