Flight attendant retires after 50 years

Flight attendant retires after 50 years

By MARK NIESSE, Associated

Press Writer


HONOLULU - When Patti Smart was hired as an Aloha Airlines stewardess
50 years ago, it was a different job for a different time.

She rubbed elbows with Frank Sinatra, performed in-flight fashion
shows and danced in smoke-filled aisles aboard cramped DC-3s seating
two dozen passengers.

Smart, nicknamed the "Queen of Aloha," retires Friday after more than
a half-century on the job she started when she was 18 years old.

A lot has changed since the old days, when people dressed up in hats
and bow ties to fly on propeller-powered planes across the Pacific.

"You're supposed to have the same niceness, the same warmth, the same
caring. But it's faster now," Smart said. "In the older days, the
flights were longer so you had more time to be intimate with
passengers and you got to be very good friends with them."

Smart has the third most years in the sky among the 55,000 flight
attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants. The
most senior flight attendant in the nation started her job in 1950.

Smart was paid $170 per month for 85 hours of work after she was
hired on Jan. 28, 1957.

Today, as the airline's most senior flight attendant (they're not
called stewardesses anymore), she makes $43.50 per hour catering to
first-class passengers on flights between Orange County, Calif., and
Honolulu.

Hearing Smart reminisce over times gone by makes her job sound more
like fun than work. She laughs when remembering affable celebrities,
prankster pilots and a box-like cart that sheltered passengers from
the rain as they disembarked.

The job has grown on her so much that she's reluctant to leave.

"There will be sparks flying from my feet as they drag me down the
runway," she said.

One time, she got into a tight spot when her skirt flew out the
window.

As she was serving pineapple juice to passengers, she spilled it all
over her uniform. She changed into a pair of pants and washed out her
skirt in the lavatory. When she tried to air-dry the skirt by letting
it flap in the breeze from the cockpit window, one of the pilots
snatched it and let it fly out the window.

"I wanted to kill those two," she said. "I wanted to get their two
heads together and whack them. They were laughing and laughing."

Top 25 Cities and Regions for Retirement Jobs

Hot off the press: By Robert Powell, MarketWatch
Last Update: 9:25 PM ET Nov 14, 2007

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Most people don't get to have their cake and eat it too. Case in point: we know the best employers for workers over age 50. And we also know the best places to which Americans can retire. But where in America are the best 25 places for retirement jobs?

Here's is the list of the top cities and regions for retirement jobs:

Northeast
Harrisburg/Lancaster, Pa.
Nashua/Manchester, N.H.

Mid- Atlantic/Southeast
Bethesda, Md.
Leesburg/Winchester, Va.
Fayetteville, Ark.
Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
Washington D.C. region
Tampa/Saint Petersburg, Fla.
Sarasota, Fla.

Central/Midwest
Louisville, Ky.
Columbus, Ohio
Knoxville, Tenn.
Indianapolis, Ind.

Southwest/Mountain
San Antonio, Texas
Phoenix, Ariz.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Greeley, Colo.

Upper Midwest/Great Plains
Madison, Wis.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Kansas City, Mo.

Northwest/West Coast
Seattle/Bellevue, Wash.
Medford, Ore.
Spokane, Wash.
Sacramento, Calif.

==================================

The problems for some semi-retirees and retirees; they can not move to those places since they need to move to be near their children or families.
JM

==================================

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/top-25-cities-those-seeking/story.aspx?guid=%7BC52C26BB%2D26A3%2D4FE1%2D8479%2DA881AB449B04%7D

Problmes In Life.

The serious problems in life, however, are never fully solved....

The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not

in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.

(C.G. Jung, Stages of Life, CW 8, § 771

The Emergence of Positive Psychology

The Emergence of Positive Psychology: The Building of a Field of Dreams
Shane J. Lopez, PhD
University of Kansas

"Build it and they will come. Build it and they will come."
A similar eerie directive echoed in Ray Consella's mind in the popular movie,
"Field of Dreams." An epiphany occurred when Consella realized that the building of a baseball field in rural Iowa would open a metaphysical door to his past and his future.

Dr. Martin Seligman experienced a similar epiphany that occurred in his garden and was brought about by the profound words of a child, his daughter Nikki. In a 1999 speech, Dr. Seligman recounted the experience that changed his view of parenting and psychology and he concluded the following:

Raising Nikki would be about taking the strength that she had just shown--I call it seeing into the soul--naming it, nurturing it, reinforcing it, helping her to lead her life around it and let it buffer against the weaknesses and the vicissitudes. The most important thing, the most general thing I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.

Positive psychology is the other side. It is the scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning and the building of a field focusing on human strength and virtue. It builds on the bench science and research methods that shed light on the "dark side" of human functioning, and it opens the door to understanding prevention and health promotion. Dr. Seligman (1998) noted:


http://www.apa.org/apags/profdev/pospsyc.html

Transform Your Life

Transform your Life - by Pastor Will Bowen

Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts. When you eliminate complaining from your life will you enjoy happier relationships, better health and greater prosperity. This simple program helps you set a trap for your own negativity and redirect your mind towards a more positive and rewarding life.

http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/

How it Works?

Scientists believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit and complaining is habitual for most of us.

Read More:
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/howitworks.html