The most memorable time for me in my flying career as a flight attendant was on the L1011 ATL to ?. The year, unremembered, but Jimmy Carter was president of The USA. It was a 3 hour flight and I was the senior F/A, so that meant, I stayed in F/C (first class) and R2 (right side flight attendant) F/A floated to the aft cabin. First class had 3 people on board. One was George H Bush SR and 2 secret service men. After I served them food and beverages (and he did not drink ETOH, alcohol), he  asked me to sit down next to him. He asked if we had a Bible on board. Of course I got The Gideon’s out of the overhead bin L! where we stowed it, remember? Together, George and I read out loud Ezekiel chapters 36, 37, and 38, and maybe 39. I knew at the time, he was getting something from it, wisdom or knowledge, and he asked me my opinion over what we read. He never interrupted, or was condescending and seemed very interested in my interpretation of the chapters. (I must tell you, I was ignorant of all politics at that time and I was clueless as to who George Bush SR was as far as public service) At the time he was running for governor of Texas and was still employed by the CIA as (head of it).

Then ~

Though, like most F/A’s met many movie stars and politicians, I served them too, But, one other stuck out in my mind. Billy Carter, X President Jimmy’s brother, was on a 20 minute flight from Columbia, SC to ATL. In 20 minutes he drank 6 Martini’s. In that 20 minutes he told me political secrets that I shouldn’t have had privy to, but being ignorant of politics, I ignored. Hind sight is twenty-twenty, I should have paid close attention as he told the reality of the goings on in Washington, at that time. He was humorous and I remember laughing as he told these hushed secrets. He told the stories using sarcastic adjectives with a lot of color as he slurred his speech. When he stumbled off the plane from FC, a man, dressed in black approached me. He said, “why are you talking to him? He’s a public disgrace an idiot.” I had a strong hunch this man in black was following Billy. Before Billy got off the plane he handed me a token of his appreciation, a 6 pack of Billy Beer, which I kept for many years… I always wondered about the man in black. Billy died shortly after this…