Welcome aboard.

When passengers boarded the plane; a stewardess would greet everyone and hand them a postcard. Since flying was so rare passengers felt compelled to document every moment on postcards with pictures of the plane or in-flight meal, to show their less lucky loved ones what the newfangled experience was like.

Hang on to your hat – Turbulence could snap your neck.

Since pistons powered commercial planes, not jet engines, the engines’ sound blasted, and their vibrations bumped like crazy in turbulence. It was common to ground planes when the turbulence got too intense.

Relax and enjoy your flight – You have heaps of legroom.

Coach seats had three to six inches more legroom than they do today — 1950s economy class looked more like first class

Smoking was acceptable, and for much longer than you’d think.

During the 1950s, smoking (of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars) was acceptable in the air, but strangely not in the terminal (they were afraid cigarettes might ignite the fuel fumes). It wasn’t until 2000 that law mandated all flights to and from the U.S. be smoke-free

Drink Up! Liquor drinks are free.

Alcohol was a popular form of in-flight entertainment. There was no limit to the free alcohol; it was not uncommon to come off a flight hammered.

Eat up.

Food variety took off in the 1950s when airlines such as Northwest Airlines brought in spaces like their “Fujiyama Room,” a lounge that served up cut pineapples studded with shrimp, cheese, cherry tomatoes, and fruit squares.

American Airlines, based in Texas, served up the chicken pie with a biscuit topping, while Southern Airlines served Louisiana dishes like a Creole shrimp salad remoulade. 

And what about the 1950s stewardess?

She was an impeccable hostess

Postwar America was awash with domesticity. When the men returned from the war, women left the workforce and went home to their role as full-time homemakers. They were expected to smile and serve casseroles to their husbands. Airline ads of the era followed society’s theme and portrayed the stewardess as the consummate 1950s woman – the ideal wife-to-be, who knew how to look charming, pamper men, and mix martinis.

She was the impeccable wife-to-be

Hundreds applied for each stewardess position, and only a few landed a stewardess career. Airlines chose what they considered the crème de la crème. The recruits were young, unmarried, charming, well-read, slender, pretty, and white. But the stewardess became an independent trailblazer who bridged the gap between the ’50s homemaker and the career woman of the ’60s.

What did she need to become a crème de la crème?

An expectation that she would wear a “well-fitted girdle” and bright red nail polish. Since airlines assumed that the bloom of youth vanished, most airlines had a mandatory retirement rule that no stewardess could work after her 32 birthday.

Stay calm

The stewardess’ primary responsibility is for passenger’s comfort and safety.

Sources:

1950s stewardess recalls her experiences

What was it really like to fly during the Golden Age of Travel?

Airline stewardesses through the ages.

This is what your flight used to look like

Post-WWII gave us advanced airplanes and a booming economy. This combination lured tens of thousands of passengers like you aloft. Along with the growth in air travel, the rules of the business had changed. Ticket prices were government-regulated since most airlines flew the same planes, airlines sought new ways to compete. The basis of competition became upscale service and impeccable stewardesses.

Post- WII Era Stewardess:

With the demand for the perfect stewardess, the post-war era stewardess received upgrades in their uniforms.  In 1944, Hollywood fashion designer Howard Greer consulted the working women to create an imperfect, but more utilitarian uniform. He devised the “blouslip,” a combined undergarment in rayon and satin that did not need constant tucking in. A discrete triangular jacket flap could be unbuttoned to cover the TWA lettering

Flight attendants rejoiced when the post-World War II uniform reintroduced nylons. During the war, the material used to make nylons was reserved for military purposes, making this fashionable item impossible to find

Here are some visions of commercial air travel in post-WWII

During WWII, commercial air travel came to a halt and gave way to flying limited aircraft designed to serve the war effort. WWII also brought changes for the stewardess.

When the second world war began in 1939, female stewardesses with their nursing skills left the airlines to offer their healing skills in the military. This exit opened the door to hire non-nurses for work as stewardesses.

WWII changed the stewardess uniform since the extra fabric was going to make military uniforms for men serving overseas. With the fabric shortage, the airline uniform designers innovated by taking out the pleats and heavy materials used in women’s wear. The result was a tighter-fighting garment that left less to the imagination. At the time, airlines imposed various sexist standards on female employees. The permission to work in the skies allowed only single stewardesses between the ages of 20-25, weighing between 110-118 pounds, standing between 5’ and 5’ 4″ feet in height, and bearing no children.  Wearing a tight girdle was another requirement.

Scenes from the WWII travel:

“Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.”

 Eddie Rickenbacker

Ellen Church succeeded. Boeing Air Transport, the predecessor of United Airlines agreed to hire eight women, conditionally, for a three-month experiment. The country’s first stewardesses journey began on May 15, 1930, when Church and seven young women began their first day. Where did they fly? Four women flew from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming and the other four flew from Cheyenne to Chicago.

The stewardess odyssey continued. The original eight stewardesses zoomed past the three months trial period and stayed on as full-time employees. The word of the original sky girls’ success inspired other airlines to recruit their own stewardesses. According to a TIME’s 1938 analysis, the jobs were highly competitive, and the hiring process was steeped in sexism. “To get their $100-to-$120-a-month jobs, applicants for the 300 stewardess posts [since 1930] had to be pretty, petite, single, graduate nurses, 21 to 26 years old, 100 to 120 lbs,” TIME notes. “Many of them found husbands right after they found jobs; few married pilots.”

It wasn’t all glamor. The first stewardess did pour drinks and look pretty, but they also cleaned the cabin, helped fuel the planes and bolted down the seats before take-off. They relied on their medical to assist airsick and panicked passengers. However, they occasionally played the part of first responders in an emergency. One instance happened when Nellie Grander, a 22-year-old TWA stewardess, ministered to critically injured passengers and then stumbled through snowy mountains in search of help after her flight crashed in Pennsylvania in 1936. (TWA rewarded her heroism with a paid cruise in the West Indies, along with a promotion.)

Ellen Church’s dream grew larger. Since the hiring female attendants paid off so well in the air, railroad executives hopped on board and planned to bring some of the sky goddess’ glamor down to earth. But TIME’s 1937 dispatch about a recruitment drive for hostesses on the New Haven rail line revealed that Church’s pioneering efforts did open new doors for female workers, only those with pageant-winning looks and charm were allowed to walk through — in the air or on land. As the story explains: “Candidates are required to be unmarried, 5 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 10 in. tall, aged 24 to 35, 115 to 135 lb. in weight. College graduates are strongly preferred. They must pass a “personality test”—i.e., be reasonably personable as well as amiable. Because Superintendent H. W. Quinlan of the New Haven’s dining cars believes that grace of carriage and movement is important, he insists on modeling experience as well as hostess experience.” TimeMagazine

“I like trains. I like their rhythm, and I like the freedom of being suspended between two places, all anxieties of purpose taken care of: for this moment I know where I am going.”  Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder

Jessica Gross delves into the reasons why writers like trains in her article, “Writing the Lake Shore Limited – Trains as writers’ garrets. The Paris Review

“Why do writers find the train such a fruitful work environment?

Why do writers find the train such a fruitful work environment? In the wake of Chee’s interview, Evan Smith Rakoff tweeted, “I’ve been on Amtrak a lot lately & love writing while traveling—a set, uninterrupted deadline.” The writer Anne Korkeakivi described train travel as “suspended impregnable time,” combined with “dreamy” forward motion: “like a mantra, it greases the brain.”

Four novelists wrote their novels on trains.

“Brooklyn novelist Peter Brett found his muse and wrote his first novel commuting on the F Line” the article by Erin Durkin for the Daily News .  It’s no wonder Brooklyn author Peter Brett’s first novel is a dark, demonic fantasy – he wrote it on the F train.

“Brett, 36, tapped out most of “The Warded Man,” which hit U.S. bookshelves last month, on his smartphone on daily trips from the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop near his Kensington home to his job in Times Square.

“I started out just trying to take notes. I’d sit on the subway, I’d get a good idea and I’d jot something down,” said Brett, who works in medical publishing.

“I got very fast at writing with my thumbs. I found myself writing more and more.”

Soon, he was averaging 400 words each morning and evening.

I wrote over 100,000 words on the train” over two years of commutes, he said.

The 400-page novel, which centers on three characters’ struggles in a world where killer demons roam the Earth at night, is the first in a series of at least three books.”

The Warded Man: Book One of The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett

As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise–demons who well up from the ground like hellish steam, taking on fearsome form and substance. Sand demons. Wood demons. Wind demons. Flame demons. And gigantic rock demons, the deadliest of all. They possess supernatural strength and powers and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity.

“Writing novels is what Scott Turow always intended to do” the article by Charlie Patton for The Florida Times-Union.  When Scott Turow’s “Presumed Innocent” was published in 1987, a decade into his career as an attorney, most people thought of him as a lawyer who wrote.

I was finding it difficult emotionally to be a writer,” Turow said. “It wasn’t so much the lack of success. But I kept asking myself: ‘What kind of life is this, locked up all day in a room with a pencil.’ I felt the need to do something great, but you can’t just will yourself to that as a writer.”

Meanwhile, he remained quietly determined to write a novel.

“I absolutely never gave that up,” he said. “The struggle was finding the time to write it.”

What would become “Presumed Innocent,” the story of a prosecuting attorney who finds himself on trial for the murder of a colleague with whom he had an affair, was written on legal pads during Turow’s daily ride on a commuter train.

Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow

The novel that launched Turow’s career as one of America’s pre-eminent thriller writers tells the story of Rusty Sabicch, chief deputy prosecutor in a large Midwestern city. With three weeks to go in his boss’ re-election campaign, a member of Rusty’s staff is found murdered; he is charged with finding the killer, until his boss loses and, incredibly, Rusty finds himself accused of the murder.

Readers Read interviewed David Baldacci about his latest novel the Christmas Train and confirmed something magic about trains inspiration for writers.

How would you describe the story in The Christmas Train?

It’s the classic travel adventure tale. A runaway screwball comedy on a train, separated by intense moments of personal strife, quiet introspection, romantic mayhem and puzzling mysteries.

What was the inspiration for The Christmas Train?

I took a train across the country, made a lot of notes, observations, overheard priceless dialogue and, in sum, amassed enormous material that was too good to waste. Plus, I love trains! Every writer should

 David Baldacci’s The Christmas Train

Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to L.A. in time for Christmas. Forced to take the train across the country because of a slight “misunderstanding” at airport security, he begins a journey of self-discovery and rude awakenings, mysterious goings-on and thrilling adventures, screwball escapades and, holiday magic.

“Dead Spy Running: author Jon Stock follows John Le Carré in writing a novel on a train” Mr. Stock’s in his article for  The Telegraph . He says, “It would be pushing it to say that the structure of Dead Spy Running mirrors my daily train commute, but the pace and rhythm of the book owes more than a little to the 8.40 from Bedwyn to London Paddington.”

Dead Spy Running: A Daniel Marchant Thriller by Jon Stock

Daniel Marchant, a suspended MI6 officer, is running the London Marathon. He is also running out of time. A competitor is strapped with explosives, and if he drops his pace, everyone around him will be killed, including the U.S. ambassador to London.

Leave your

and hop on the nearest 

Trains are more than a mode of transportation. Pick up many great novels and discover that trains are the symbols and themes of the books.

Trains as symbols in literature give stories depth.  Trains are a place where people accidentally meet, go their separate ways, take the time to think, work on something, and even as a place of rest and relaxation.

And here are some great examples of trains and literature.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter applies “Hogwarts Express”  into many levels of her story. The train, in which all characters reunite after a summer without seeing each other, serves as a place of bonding. The train is where the characters tell each other stories about their adventures and update each other on their current activities

In “The Polar Express”  Chris Van Allsburg‘s book, the train is the key element in the child’s experience.  Instead of the train transporting the children to a place where they will experience a great adventure, the magical train is where the adventures take place.

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci takes a disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon on a train journey from Washington D.C. to L.A in time for Christmas. The character travels by train that takes him on a journey of rude awakenings and a thrilling adventure. The train moves him across America and takes him into the rugged terrain of his own heart where he rediscovers people’s essential goodness and someone very special he believed he had lost.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. What a dream for the mystery addict to find a much-loathed murder victim found aboard the luxurious Orient Express with multiple stab wounds and thirteen likely suspects, an incomparably brilliant detective in Hercule Poirot, and the most ingenious crime ever conceived?

Starting in the 1800s the British led the way in the influence of trains in novels.

Visit Railways in Victorian Fiction to find interesting details on the first railway line in Britain that opened in 1830 and transformed how the public traveled and communicated in fiction. It focuses on the works of Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot and explores the influence of the railway on Victorian novels.

Want to plan a British literary train tour?

Are you inspired to explore the many British literary sites on a train? Here’s the trip that you could add to your fall vacation plans.

It’s Great Trains of Europe Literary Britain train tour where you’ll see how the rich heritage of English literature links with the landscapes where the stories are set.

The 10-day tour includes literary stops to over 20 of the most beloved British authors’ homes and/or inspirational landscapes in the following locations:

Edinburgh via the classic Flying Scotsman

The Lake District via First Class seats on British Rail

Beatrix Potter Cottage

British Railway First Class

Cotswold via British Rail

Cornwall via British Rail

London via British Rail

Luxury trains take you on a journey that shines over the destination.  Compare luxury train journeys to the car or air travel. When you take a vacation by car you can’t wait to get the drive over and reach your vacation stop. And air travel can be miserable since you’re stuffed into tight seats that make you almost stop breathing until you reach your destination.

If you’re seeking a trip of a lifetime, you’ll choose the luxury train trip that gives you pleasure every second of your trip.

You’ll get pampered as soon as you board the train.

Private sleeping accommodations like your traveling hotel room which includes a private bath, seating area, a picture window, and a bed.

Gourmet meals in luxurious dining cars.

Carefree travel to multiple destinations without worries to find your way on your own.

Hop on board and watch as countries and their sensory visions unfold before you while you relax and take in the experience.

Check out following grand train trips to find one for you.

The Epic Journey: Trans-Siberian Railway
Route: Moscow to Vladivostok, RussiaDuration: 19 days

Trans Siberia

The Elegance of Yesteryear: Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Route: London to Venice

Duration: Two days, one night

Simplon Orient Express

Luxury on Wheels: The Balkan Odyssey
Route: Venice to BudapestDuration: 11 days (including stays in Venice and Budapest)

The Balkan Odyssey

A Nostalgic Journey: El Transcantábrico Gran Lujo
Route: San Sebastián to Santiago de CompostelaDuration: 8 days

The wonder of Ireland: Belmond Grand Hibernian, Ireland

Grand Tour of Ireland from 4 to 6 days including stops at Jameson’s whiskey distillery, Blarney Castle & Gardens, and Belfast’s Titanic museum.

Grand Hibernian

And now the for a sneak peek of these luxury train trips.

It’s that time of the year with the winter wind’s gust brings snow and frosty temperatures. And all you desire is to wrap yourself in a warm woolen blanket and wait for the first flowers of spring to blossom under the warm sun. You can’t hibernate all winter. It’s terrible for your health.

Your ticket to escape cabin fever is to buy a train ticket where you can relax, read, and roam.

Train travel lets you relax because it’s hassle-free, efficient, and, carefree. Once you’re on board all you need to do is enjoy the ride.

Trains offer long strolling places to walk with at least 23 cars to traverse.

Trains are the perfect place to read that stack of books that waited for you find time to open them.

Shermans Travel  reviews Ride the Rails: Our Favorite Winter Train Trips from New Orleans to the Polar Express

Colorado Winter Trains offers the railroads that travel Colorado’s rough winter terrain.

Canadian Winter Train Journeys gives getaways to the Canadian Rockies.

Plum Deluxe takes train travels to the Switzerland Glacier Express or The Flam Railway with trips through the Norwegian landscape

Alaska Railroad with connections to Anchorage, Talkeetna, and Fairbank

The Guardian  Andrew Martin’s article Top 10 books about trains include novels published from 1866 to 2009.

NPR Books find some great books with trains as a focal point in All Abroad! A Reading List For Riding The Rails