A lifelong dream came true for Laurie Bradley when she became a Pan Am Airlines flight attendant in 1989. She flew all over the world, enjoying her interactions with passengers, meeting a few famous people, and seeing the sights in cities such as London and Paris. Above: Airline personnel were required to dress up at all times when flying, whether as passenger or crew, although the uniforms were only required when they were on the job. This is Bradley in uniform. Left: While working for Pan Am, Bradley lived in New York City and took this photo of the Twin Towers that would later come crashing down on September 11, 2001.
“I’ve lived my dream.” Laurie Bradley of Grand Marais has the photos to prove it. She was a flight attendant for Pan Am Airlines from 1989- 1995, flying all over the world—to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and even Afghanistan.
From the time she was little, Bradley dreamed of being a flight attendant. Growing up in the Twin Cities, Bradley would tell her grandma, Margot Florell, who would later become a Grand Marais resident and live to be 105½, “I’m going to be a flight attendant someday. I’m going to see the world!” Bradley’s mother, the late LeeAnne Lund of Grand Marais, did not like to fly.
Before becoming a flight attendant, Bradley modeled for Wendy Ward and Dayton’s, earned a nursing degree, and became a supervisor at a pediatrics clinic in the Twin Cities. She was not married and had no children, and when she spotted an ad in the paper, she jumped at the opportunity.
Bradley had the personality for both nursing and flying. “I just love working with people,” she said.
Bradley made it through three interviews in one day, telling interviewers, “This has always been my dream.” She was offered a job on the spot, and five days later, flew to Pan Am headquarters in Miami with four others from Minnesota for six weeks of training. “I was on Cloud Nine,” she said.
Back then, image was everything, and flight attendants had to be within certain height and weight limits. “Even when I was ‘deadheading’—traveling on my own—I still had to dress up,” Bradley said. The airline provided shoes for its flight attendants. During flights, they wore flats, but in the terminals, they were required to wear heels.
Being a flight attendant was glamorous and had its perks, but it didn’t pay a lot. At first, Bradley had to sit at airports waiting to be assigned a flight that needed an attendant. On layovers, flight attendants were paid per diems and would each be put up in their own suites at fancy hotels, but they were not paid for the time they spent at pre-flight briefings, in terminals, or sitting on runways.
Bradley ended up being based out of New York City, where she shared an apartment close to the airport with eight other Pan Am flight attendants. They got to know the firefighters in a station nearby—many of whom died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Airline employees helped each other. “We were like a family,” Bradley said, “even with other airlines.
Favorite places
“In the U.S., my favorite place was Providence, Rhode Island,” Bradley said, explaining that it is surrounded by water. “It was beautiful there. Just very serene.”
Bradley said she had a lot of favorite places, but she especially loved Paris, which she visited a lot, and enjoyed going to Herrods when she was in London.
Experiences with passengers
Learning about different cultures was important as a flight attendant. Bradley said it was helpful, for example, to know that people from India would not look you in the eye when speaking to you. She noticed that men from India would often sit behind the women they were with and speak for them. A flight attendant manual helped her learn how to converse in various languages.
Bradley said they had to be careful to avoid difficult situations. “There were men who would offer to buy us.”
One of Bradley’s most memorable experiences was accompanying American troops to Afghanistan on a military cargo plane during the Gulf War. They gave the troops first-class service. They landed, dropped off the troops, and took off again. “It was scary,” she said.
Bradley once gave a man CPR on a long flight in a 747. They tried to revive him for at least half an hour, but to no avail. They later received a letter of thanks from the family for their attempts to save him.
Once, a drunk passenger threw a can at Bradley, requiring her to get stitches on her finger.
On a turbulent flight to New Zealand, the crew had to hand out airsickness bags. Bradley said they explained to passengers that the wings of a plane have to be able to move up and down to avoid breaking.
Bradley staffed a small shuttle plane from New York to Salt Lake City that had been chartered by Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown for themselves, their family, and their band. Bradley said Houston was really “out of it” during the flight; she later learned of Houston’s drug use.
Bradley was able to spend a lot of time talking to anchorman Tom Brokaw on a flight from New York to Germany. He gave her a postcard that says, “To Laurie. Thanks for the ride. – Tom Brokaw.”
“In general, people are very nice,” Bradley said. In London, passengers would have them over for Christmas because all the restaurants were closed.
Life in the air
First-class passengers were given a wet, warm towel upon being seated, a mimosa (orange juice and champagne) in the morning, and a seven-course meal.
“Chicken or beef?” Bradley said. “I think I used to say that in my sleep.”
Bradley said she was never afraid, even on turbulent flights. “I had a lot of trust in our pilots,” she said. “They had good training. I had good training.” They were taught how to deal with terrorists and told that they would someday have to deal with them.
“I’m a Christian, so being really high up in the sky made me feel a little closer to heaven,” Bradley said.
Pan Am eventually went bankrupt. Delta offered Bradley a job, but she turned it down because she wanted to get married and have a family. She was able to return to her former clinic job but moved on to become an independent nursing examiner for an insurance company. Her mom was glad when she was done flying.
“I really have been blessed with my life,” Bradley said.
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