The so-called Golden Age of air travel seems just about as mythical as Westeros in 2019, but there was a time when flying was considered glamorous, exclusive, and much more expensive than it is today. Before airline deregulation came along in the late 1970s, carriers like Pan Am, Eastern, and Trans World Airlines (TWA) jetted high-flyers around the world in sleek, comfortable planes, their every need serviced by runway-ready flight attendants (martinis included). But is such misty-eyed nostalgia misplaced? We asked former flight attendants to share their memories of what it was really like to work on an airplane during that halcyon era—from tinfoil uniforms to 10 day layovers on an isolated tropical island.

Left: Barbara Shale at her Eastern Airlines training school graduation on August 2, 1967; Carol Ann Grecco with her American Airlines graduating class in 1969. Courtesy Barbara Shale; Carol Ann Grecco

Barbara Shale, 73, lives in Miami but grew up in Ohio. She worked for Eastern Airlines from 1967 until 1991, when the airline folded.

In May 1967, a month before graduating from college, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. The airlines were just starting to fly jets and needed to expand their stewardess base, and a boyfriend from New York suggested I consider it—that way, I could get out of the Midwest mindset. He was right. We had it all. We saw the world. We went from being small-town girls to knowing how to get along with everyone; to learning that other cultures had so much to offer. I still miss meeting people from other countries. It was a much better education than college.

By the '70s I had enough seniority to [choose to] fly to the West Coast. We called ourselves the bi-coastal flight attendants: we had parties with celebrities, and bought back cases of wine from wineries. (Flight crews single-handedly made Coors Beer famous by transporting it to the East Coast—where it was unheard of at the time.) Every celebrity flew commercial back then. One of my most memorable [passengers] was Michael Jackson. His people wouldn't let him eat or drink anything, but we brought him to the galley and fed him. Once one of my acrylic fingernails flew off into Martin Sheen's drink. He thought it was funny and told me to just take it out and not make a new drink for him. After his term in office, Jimmy Carter was often on flights to Haiti to build houses. He once sat across from the galley drinking a Coke and talking to me while I served the meals, just like an ordinary person.

One time, though, a little girl who was about eight years old told me she wanted to grow up to be a stewardess. I said: “No, honey, you want to grow up to be a pilot. They make more money.”