I was surfing through some blogs tonite and just relaxing, going from blog to blog from the links on each. I ran across one that talked about what that person wanted to be when they grew up. Well, it didn’t take but a flat second for my childhood dream job to pop back in my head.
Back in the 1960’s when air travel was still something special, and people dressed up to fly, I spent the night at the TWA terminal at JFK airport. I was 5 years old and on my way to Germany with my mother to meet my father. (he was in the air force and went ahead to arrange housing) That night turned into a magical event for me. My mother wanted me to try and get some sleep but that didn’t happen. All night I watched the people coming and going, the pilots in their sharp uniforms with golden bands on the cuffs, the flight attendants with their tailored suits (of course at five I didn’t know about tailoring….) and passengers coming and going.
Then it was our turn. It was early morning and the sun was shining through the windows of the terminal. I can remember to this day, almost 42 years later walking out the jetway to our TWA Boeing 707 jetliner. I just stopped and my mouth dropped open. At my young age I had never seen anything as beautiful as that gleaming white jet with the golden atlas globes on the tail and the bright red TWA. As we walked up the stairway to the door I can remember reaching my hand out and running my fingers across the smooth skin of the planes fuselage right next to the door. We found our seats with the help of our flight attendant and sat down and buckled up. It was all so exciting; everyone stowing bags and sitting down and buckling up and listening to the muffled sounds of dozens of conversations. Then the engines started and soon we were ready. As we taxied out to the runway I had my nose to the window. I could feel the vibration of the plane through my body and my heart was pounding as I heard the engines go to full power and we lurched forward for our roll down the runway. As soon as our majestic bird left the ground I knew from then on that I wanted to be an airline pilot. But not just any airline pilot. Over the years I had flown on many airlines and planes from Eastern to National to Alitalia and Pan Am. I had flown on DC-8’s and the new 747 and 727’s, but nothing ever matched the Boeing 707. That was it. I was going to be a TWA airline pilot flying a Boeing 707 airliner and nothing else. I wouldn’t even consider thinking about anything else.
Well over the years I emersed myself in airline and airplane books and models and just about everything I could. At 16 I took my first intro flight for my pilots license. I had to wait another year though and at 17 I went to work at a small private airport washing planes, cutting grass and doing general line work. I took flying lessons in a Cessna 172XP Skyhawk. While most of my friends in the 70’s had posters of Farah Fawcett in her red bathing suit (you know the one – it had sex airbrushed in her hair) I had a poster of the cockpit of a 707 and another framed picture of a TWA 707.
I solo’d after 27 hours and completed my ground school. I went for my FAA physicial and it all ended in on brief moment. The doctor told me I had a blind spot in my eye and at that time the FAA nixed anything like that. My vision was not 20/20 and I had worn glasses all my life. I could have gone on an gotten my private license but I just walked away from it all. I have flown a lot since then but never got back in the cockpit to finish my lessons, even though today’s regs say I can fly. I am 47 now and whenever I run across a photo of a TWA 707, I close my eyes and go back to that memorable day when I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.
So what was your dream?
