The Missive Book Club: Come Fly The World With Me
Our March 2023 Book Club Selection
My own story is inseparable from that of Pan Am World Airways. My mom joined PanAm in 1977 and worked there until the airline declared bankruptcy in 1991.
Growing up, it seemed normal that my mother had access to limitless travel. Our home was filled with souvenirs from her trips to Africa, Europe, and Latin America. It was little wonder I grew up to become a jet-setting travel vlogger. It was in my blood.
Last month, the last Boeing 747 took its final flight between New York and London. Its retirement marked the end of an era that was once known as the Jet Age. “The Queen of the Skies” was a true force of globalization that stitched the world more closely together as it made air travel affordable to the masses. And no airline was as synonymous with the 747 as Pan Am.
The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives, but perhaps none as much as air travel. The worldwide web spun by Pan Am came apart overnight, causing many of our lives to slow down for the first time in decades. My mother and many of her original Pan Am colleagues were pushed into early retirement, looking back on what suddenly felt like a bygone era.
Then came Come Fly the World With Me: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am, by travel journalist Julia Cooke. Like me, Julia grew up within the “Pan Am family” and has a personal connection to the material. But in piecing together interviews with the larger historical forces of the era, she’s able to explain so much of our modern world through the story of a single airline - from the war in Vietnam to the Civil Rights and women’s liberation movements.
As Julia Cooke says, a jet-age stewardess serving a Pan Am flight in the 60s and 70s was required to have a college education, speak two languages, and possess the politcal savvy of a Foreign Service officer - plus being between 5’3” and 5’9”, 105-140lbs and under 26 years old at the time of hire. Despite these requisites, these women would form a barrier-breaking generation that changed our world forever.
This month, I’m excited to bring my mom and some of her Pan Am colleagues into our live book club discussion to both reflect upon the text and share their own personal experiences from this epic era.
As always, if you’d like to join our book club discussions, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to gain full access to The Missive and help support our reporting.
In the meantime, grab your copy of Come Fly the World With Me and mark your calendars for the live discussion on Thursday April 6th, 3PM LAX / 6PM JFK time. I’ll send out the Zoom details to paid subscribers later in the month.
Happy reading,
Marko
PS: Next Thursday is the book club discussion for the February read, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
PPS: To get a taste of what it was like onboard, see the YouTube video I made with my mom about the Pan Am Experience in LA below.
That sounds wonderful. I was a flight attendant in my younger days and even had some colleagues who flew with Pan Am. Talk about a bygone era...
This is exciting news! I’ve got it on the calendar. I’ll be traveling next week and won’t be able to attend but looking forward to April!