The travel experience was dramatically different during the heyday of Patti’s career, which was known as the Golden Age of Travel. Today, we can only daydream of enough space to spread out and being in the upstairs lounge of a 747 mingling with other passengers while being served a cocktail.
This was a time when, hard as it is to believe now, traveling was a luxury. In these “glamour vears” of travel, men dressed in suits and women in dresses with high heels. Travel attire was similar to that of going to the theatre.
Meals were exceptional – the finest cuts of prime rib served on china with real silver. Drinks were always free and they would often bump you up to first class to fill the seats.
Flight attendants were called stewardesses and were always young, beautiful women between the ages of 22 and 28. Back then, they wore smartly-designed uniforms that sometimes made the covers of fashion magazines. “Coffee, tea or me” was a catchy and popular phrase of the day, although completely unacceptable in today’s standards of diversity and inclusion.
And what about security? Passengers were not required to show their ID so they could even use a ticket with another person’s name on it since they were not required. Travelers didn’t have to wait in long security lines or remove their shoes. A traveler could walk with one’s family all the way up to the departure gate.
It might be nice to see a few things return to a bit more of the glamour that travelers in the sixties enjoyed to this modern age.
