ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL NEW ARRIVAL

As it always has, fortunately winter was followed by spring and summer. Spring in Connecticut is a wonderful time. Trees are showing new growth and flowers are peeking out of the ground, almost like saying "is it safe to come out and bloom", and when they do, it's a riot of color and aroma.

Hartford was a nice city. Our District Sales office was located there in the Bond Hotel. Our District Manager, Holt Shipman, reported to the Boston regional office. We usually had one or two meetings a year in Boston. I was enjoying working at Bradley Field Airport, and Hip Lloyd was certainly a good boss to work for, but I couldn't see myself as a ticket or operations' agent for the rest of my life. For now, it was fine, and with a new baby on the way, I was looking forward to staying put for some time. Eastern was growing and we were adding extra flights. It was a busy time… And time was flying.

It was on September 1^st. 1954, that we had our new arrival when Helen brought forth a second beautiful baby girl, Karen Ann Kitchener. We now had Kathy and Karen. I was amazed that both girls were always so content. They rarely cried or were sick; they were just the best babies anyone could have. Karen was blue eyed and very blond like her mother, she was not quite as big as Kathy was, and it was apparent that she was going to be a tall young lady. Kathy was almost two years old and took great interest in Karen. She was happy to have a baby sister and was looking forward to play with her when they got older. Kathy even at that age was a very caring child.

It was at that time that District Manager Holt Shipman asked me to come down to his office in Hartford for a meeting. Holt told me that they were going to expand the District Office and were planning to add an Outside Sales Representative. Holt wanted to know if I would be interested in applying for the position. The job would entail calling on all the travel agents in the district and all the major commercial establishments in an effort to get them to use Eastern Airlines when they travelled. Holt told me that he had already spoken to Hip Lloyd and Hip was in accord with offering me the interview.

I had had a little bit of experience in outside sales while in Miami. I spent a few days with the outside representatives calling on agents and hotel concierges. The airlines didn't have many outside sales people in those days. The only one that I knew in Connecticut was a man worked for United Air Lines. In any event, I was ready to learn more and told Holt that I would welcome the opportunity to interview for the job.

A few weeks later Al Terrell, the Regional Manager from Boston came down to Hartford to interview me. I had met Al in Boston during our regional meetings.I believe it made the interview a little easier. I spent about an hour or so talking with Al and answering his questions. It helped that I had the Management Training experience in Miami, as well as having worked in all the different departments. I will always remember the ending of the interview when Al said: "Ray, you've got the job. Congratulations" As I got up to leave, Al said: Let me get your hat. I said thank you, but I didn't have one. I was told that when I left the office I was to buy a hat and never go out without it. (I don't think many people wear a hat today. Jack Kennedy changed the style when he went hatless.). In any event I bought a hat and became a District Sales Representative, working out of the Hartford office. Hip Lloyd offered his congratulations and told me that he would always be available for assistance if needed. In Many ways, the Connecticut Eastern Air Line employees were very much a family.

It was about that time that Helen told me the good news that Kathy and Karen were going to get a new baby sister or brother.

 

Hartford, Connecticut

Eastern Air Lines served two cities in Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford. The Hartford's airport was Bradley Field, located at Windsor Locks, which was midway between Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts. Several other airlines also served Bradley Field. Eastern's Airport Manager was Hip Lloyd. During my interview with him I found that he needed someone who could handle flight operations as well as the ticket counter and the reservation office. I had considerable experience in all these functions and could fill the post very well. We set an approximate date for my transfer and I was on my way back to Miami to give Helen the good news. The "approximate" date was due to the fact that I had to sell the house in Miami, plus the fact that I would stay in Miami until the busy season was over. Mr. Lloyd was happy to be getting someone with so much experience and he was alright with the wait.

Helen seemed happy that we were going to be in Connecticut. Her family's home was in Little Falls, New York, which was about a day's drive from Hartford. She had graduated from the State Teachers College in Syracuse and still had a sister in the area. In the mean time I had to sell the house in Miami. I also had to sell the convertible we had purchased, and get a more suitable car for the north. My mother came for a visit and so did my Dad, fortunately not at the same time. It was a hectic time, especially with a new baby. Fortunately, again, Kathy was an easy baby to care for. She was always happy and loved to be held and played with.

The house sold and we had to rent a place for a couple of months. I wasn't so lucky with the car, so I decided to just keep it and trade it in once we were up North. We didn't have a large amount furniture and belongings, therefore I decided to rent a "U-haul" I had a trailer hitch installed and we were just about ready to roll.

Transfer date arrived. Thanks to some Eastern "Sky Caps" who helped me load the furniture in the trailer and we were on our way. I picked the most direct route without thinking about the trailer I was towing. The most direct route took us through the Appalachian Mountains. Going up the mountains was pretty slow going, the trailer was very heavy. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down, and it was much faster than I wanted to go. The trailer was swaying and I was praying, by the time we reached the bottom, I had burned out the brakes, and Helen, holding Kathy was not a happy camper with my route choice. Neither was I. We found a hotel and stayed overnight while they put in new brake pads. It was two days later when my wife started speaking to me again.

The plan was to drive to Fairfield, New York, which is just outside Little Falls, where Helen and Kathy would stay with Helen's father and mother. I would leave the trailer there, drive to Windsor Locks, find a place to live, and then bring Helen and Kathy to their new home. Sounded good, but things don't always work that smoothly. When I got to Bradley Field, Hip Lloyd wanted me to start work immediately. I found a room that I could rent near the airport and started work the very next day.

It was great to be back at work; however, I just could not find a suitable rental house or apartment. I found an area of new homes that were being built very close to the airport. After consultation with Helen, I decided that the best thing to do was buy one of the newly built homes. I was pretty sure that I would be stationed in Connecticut for a long time to come. We purchased a home on Darien Drive, in Windsor Locks. Over my weekend days off, I drove up to Fairfield and picked up Helen, Kathy, and the furniture and we drove to the new house. At last the family could settle in.

Connecticut is a very nice state, especially the Northern part. From where we lived it was only about a 30 minute drive to either South, to Hartford or North, to Springfield. We arrived in the late spring and it was nice not to have to endure the summer heat of south Florida. When not at work, I was working around the house. I seeded the new lawn, built a rail fence around the property, and did all the chores of a new home owner. Kathy was growing very fast and the summer was going fast too. We celebrated Punky's first birthday on November 11, 1953. It was shortly after the New Year, that I received the good news that Kathy was going to have a new brother or sister.

Winter had arrived and so did the snow. Winter flight operations work was alright in the office, but standing out in the snow directing aircraft to the loading area or climbing up on a special scaffold to spray glycol on the wings and tail so ice wouldn't form, were jobs that the operations staff often tossed a coin to see who got that nasty winter task.

This was also the first time that I had to shovel snow from the drive way. Now I knew why all those people came to Florida in the winter. I kind of missed those whispering palms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A NEW ARRIVAL ON THE SCENE

Winter 1951/52 was very busy. Helen and I purchased a home in the Southwest Miami area. It was a nice 2 bedroom home sitting on a double lot, at 1625 S.W. 28^th St. In those days this was mostly a farm area. The owner of the large farm across the street would often come by with corn and other produce he was growing. We purchased the home from the builder for $12,000. Would you believe this?

It was a hectic time at Eastern. Flights were full and often oversold. We had a special individual in reservations whose job it was to study the average number of no-shows on past flights and calculate how many seats we could sell, over capacity, in order to make up for the no-shows we had on every flight. In those days, there was no penalty for being a no-show; therefore, he would authorize the sale of additional seats over capacity. This was done for every flight. Often, even with over-sales, we would still have seats for stand-by passengers. On the other hand, when everyone showed up, we had very angry people ready to kill. All we could do was put them on a priority standby list or refund their ticket.

We counted tickets at the departure gate and when the tickets equaled seats, we stopped passengers from boarding. However, miscounts often resulted in having to go onboard the airplane and remove passengers who had no confirmed seat. You can imagine the problem and anger we encountered when trying to get someone to deplane. Only a few of us were authorized to handle these problems. It was up to management staff such as the Reservations Manager, District Sales Manager, etc to handle the tricky situation. It was not an easy task. The passenger would often refuse to get off or sit down in the middle of the aisle; some would even try to swing a punch at you. Our Reservations Manager had a good solution; he would hide in the men's room. When the season was over, he came to work one day and found a new Manager sitting at his desk.

It was good when the winter of 1951/52 was over. Then, in an effort to develop summer travel to Florida, Eastern came up with a special summer promotion called "Happy Holidays". We were able to convince a number of hotels on Miami Beach to remain open over the summer and we would promote special tours, using those hotels who would give it a try. We came up with a special $19.00 per person, plus airfare, for a 6 night vacation on Miami Beach. If you combined this with a roundtrip $88.00 per person coach air fare, a couple could spend the week on Miami Beach for only $214.00. This promotion was highly successful. Miami was on its way to becoming a year round destination. Miami was so appreciative of the Eastern Air Lines effort to increase tourism that they named a new causeway to Key Biscayne, the "Rickenbacker Causeway".

But something much more special was about to happen. On November 11, 1952, Helen presented me with a beautiful baby daughter, Kathryn Rae Kitchener. She was a very happy and healthy baby. Since Helen was going to continue work, we hired Mrs. Feeger, an English lady to take her for walks in her carriage and to take care of her every day. She just loved Kathy. We could not have had a better baby. I can hardly remember her ever crying. She sure was the joy of our life. She became "Punky", a nick name she still has today.

Unfortunately, Helen was having a very difficult time with the Florida heat. Our house was not air-conditioned; very few homes were in those days. The Eastern Airlines department where she worked was not air-conditioned either. After a number of visits to the Doctor and various medications that didn't work, he recommended that we find a cooler place to live. I approached the company to see if it was possible to obtain a transfer up North. Eastern was very accommodating and found that the Hartford Connecticut airport office was looking for someone who could handle flight operations and reservations. I soon found myself on a plane to Bradley Field, Connecticut for an interview with the station manager, Hip Loyd. I understood from those who knew him, that he was a very good manager and well liked. I hoped that he would like me.

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMER TIME

Summer in Florida could honestly be called tropic. Although it did cool down somewhat during the evening and night, heat and humidity made the days rather uncomfortable. It was easy to understand why there was very little tourism from June through October. Although the few hotels that remained open were air conditioned, most places were not. Florida had not yet embraced the comforts of air conditioning. It was far too expensive to purchase and run. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, President of Eastern Air Lines, did not believe in a/c, and told us all that it was unhealthy. Frankly, Capt Eddy was a tightwad and could not bring himself to spend the money. He did, however, have a supply of salt tablets by every drinking fountain.

On my first summer in Florida, I was introduced to hurricanes. All I knew about Hurricanes was from an old Bogart film called "Key Largo". The one that hit us that summer was a close relative to the one in the movie. When Eastern knew it was coming, they evacuated our aircraft to the North. They informed us that all the married men and home owners could go home to board up their homes and be with their wives and families. They asked for a few volunteers to stay at the airport for security reasons and to answer phone calls from people trying to leave Miami. The main terminal building was new, but on either side there were wooden fingers where the gates for incoming and departing flights were located. Fred and I volunteered to stay along with four or five others.

I had taken my old Ford and pulled it under the roof of one of the fingers, where I hoped it would be safe. When the storm hit, it was wind and rain with such force that the wooden fingers began to come apart. The wind was howling so badly in the terminal that we felt sure it was going to collapse. I remember looking out at the runway and it looked like an ocean with waves coming in and crashing against the building. As the eye of the storm passed overhead, it became very quiet and still. You could look up and see the moon in the sky.

We all went outside to look around. Just down the street, about four or five blocks away, was a little coffee shop with the lights on. I decided that I would see if it was open and get some coffee for all of us. It was open, so I got several cups of coffee which the owner put into a box for me to carry. I had walked back about two blocks when the eye of the storm disappeared and the winds returned in full force. I grabbed hold of a telephone pole as the wind almost blew me down. The box of coffee disappeared into the wind and I was about as scared as I had ever been. I managed to get back to the terminal, mostly on my hand and knees, soaking wet, with a lesson learned: never go out in the eye of a hurricane.

The old Ford survived (unfortunately). It had a few extra dents and scratches along with a cracked windshield, but it was running. Fred and I decided to drive into Miami and look at the damage. I recall Burdines store windows had broken open, with clothing and manikins laying in the street. Some streets were impassable because of the debris. Miami was like a ghost town. No people, no police, just a lot of destruction where ever you looked. We decided to just get out of there and drive back to Miami Springs. When the airport reopened, the employees were full of stories about roofs gone, trees down, flooded houses, broken windows and children crying of fright. Hardly anyone had storm shutters or even hurricane insurance in those days. It was quite an introduction to the fury of Mother Nature.

Summer passed into fall and the tourists started to return. I had been dating Helen Oliver for more than six months and I asked her to marry me. Helen was a divorcee; she had been married to a man who was an American seismologist, working for the Venezuelan Government, searching for oil in Venezuela. She had worked for the American Embassy, in Caracas. When the marriage broke up, she came to Miami where she got her divorce. She then obtained a job at Eastern Airlines where we met. We were married in February, 1951.

It was a very busy winter; Eastern was now flying the Super Constellation, the L1011, with 64 passengers. They started "Economy Coach Service" with flights flying out of New York and Miami around midnight and arriving in Miami or New York at 7 AM in the morning. The fare was only forty four dollars one way. Flights were crowded and we had to have a midnight to 8 AM shift and a 3:30 PM to midnight shift to handle the new schedules. The daytime flights were sold out as well. We often had as many as 1000 people on our standby lists trying to get on a flight home.

Life with Eastern was good and I was happy that I had decided to remain there rather than returning to United. It certainly was giving me a great deal of airline experience and I was looking forward to the future.

IN FLORIDA, WITH EASTERN

The offer to remain in Florida with Eastern Air Lines rather than returning to United Air Lines, in San Francisco was not only a business career decision, but also a moral one. Although Eastern had picked up my salary and extra living expenses, United had continued my seniority. They had even sent me a one year pin along with a very complimentary letter about my excellent report from Eastern. They were looking forward to my return.

I found out that Fred, the other United employee, had also been asked to remain with Eastern. The two of us had a long discussion about the morality of Eastern approaching us behind United's back, and what the opportunities might be at either company. After much soul searching, we both decided to stay with Eastern. After informing our new employer, we each sent in a letter of resignation to United.

I had another personal problem: Mother, who was in San Francisco awaiting my return. In a long telephone call, I found that she was working with a pharmacy company, in San Francisco, and we agreed that she should stay there for now. As it turned out, she later met and married the pharmacist; but more about that in another blog.

Now it was time to reorganize our living arrangements. Dan, from Los Angeles, who had been working at the ticket counter, was returning to United with the remarks that Fred and I were not of sound mind for not going back. The biggest surprise was that George, from Seattle, our other co-renter, turned out to be gay; he was leaving to start a beauty salon with a gay friend he had met. Strange, but none of us had any idea that he was gay. That left Fred and me to find other accommodations. We found a great two bedroom apartment in Miami Springs; it was very close to the airport and came all furnished. So, now we were Eastern employees, Fred continued working in Terminal Control and I was in Reservations.

Eastern put me into a management training program. In effect, I was to spend time in all departments. It was April 1948, and Eastern was entering its slow period. This was great as I was able to get in a lot of training. My first assignment was airline accounting. This is where all the tickets picked up at the boarding gate were separated, by airline, and sent off to the Airline Reporting Corp. This company was responsible for processing all the tickets from all the airlines, in order to determine, which owed what. We also audited the money from the ticket counters, by agent, for accuracy, etc. Other departments were Departure Control, Flight Operations, Baggage Handling, Travel Agency Relations, Outside Sales, Ticket Counter, and Terminal Control where seat inventory was managed. Between assignments, I would return to reservations where we handled incoming reservations from the general public, from travel agents, and a special desk that handled calls from hotel concierges.

In the summertime, Miami and Miami Beach were almost empty cities. Hotels closed and boarded up for the summer. In Miami there were a few motels and only two hotels, the Columbus and the Everglades. On the beach, most of the hotels were in South Beach up to about 20^th Street. The big flashy hotels of today didn't start to come into being until the mid and late 50s.

One of my favorite places on the Beach was a bar owned by comedienne Martha Ray. Martha was often in attendance, when she was not making a movie or doing some TV show. She was very friendly and was just as funny in person as on the screen. Another place I enjoyed was a bar on the beach that featured twin pianos. I don't recall anymore who the performers were, but they were great. They would play for about twenty minutes every hour. They had a strict rule: no drinks served during their performance and no noisy conversations. No one minded the rule and the bar was packed every night.

I purchased a very used car. It was a 1939 Ford and not in very good shape. The Miami area had lots of canals and this was a very good thing; when the ford started to overheat I could pull up next to a canal and get some water for the radiator. The windshield also leaked when it rained, and I often ended up with very wet feet. In any event it was better than the bike I had been using.

I recall a funny story that I didn't think was funny at the time. I had just bought the car and decided that I would drive the car from Miami Springs to downtown Miami to go to the movies. As I came out of the movies, the bus that I used to ride on, was just stopping by the theatre. I ran for the bus and boarded; it was just about back in Miami Springs when I woke up to the fact that I was now a car owner and that my car was parked back in Miami. It was a long time before I forgave myself for being so stupid.

I had a number of girl friends, but nothing serious; the same for Fred. Although we were better paid than before, money was not plentiful, so a date often meant inviting a girl to the apartment, where we would listen to records and have a couple of beers. Many times a couple of girls came over and the four of us would cook dinner, and just hang out, having fun talking and joking. There were lots of girls working at Eastern, so most of the times these were the girls we entertained and hung out with.

It was about that time that a young lady came to work at Eastern. Her name was Helen Oliver.

 

 

 

Eastern Air Lines

Although I didn't realize it at the time, I was a very lucky man. United Air Lines' offering to "loan me" to Eastern Air lines could have meant my flying to one of Eastern Air Lines northern cities, but here I was enroute to Miami, Florida. On board our flight I met a fellow United Airlines employee, Jack Frederickson, from the Oakland office. We spent the time getting acquainted and wondering how Eastern Air Lines may differ from United. Fred, as he liked to be called, suggested that we try to find accommodations together. Eastern would be paying us our current salary, plus a housing and food allowance. I agreed, as I felt that Fred was a very nice guy. I felt we could get along for the five few months we would be with Eastern.

Upon our arrival in Miami, we were met by Ed Noaks, who was the Miami Airport ticket counter manager for Eastern. He sent us off to a nearby hotel with instructions on where to report the next morning. At the hotel, we met other United employees, who had arrived earlier. It was at the hotel that we met Dan, who was a United employee from Los Angeles, and George, from Seattle. The four of us decided to get accommodations together. There were about fifteen people at the hotel, both men and women, employees from various United Air Lines cities.

The following morning we were picked up and taken to the Miami airport where we were going to have a two day training session on Eastern Air Lines procedures. After training, the people were assigned jobs such as in reservations, at the ticket counter, in accounting, with operations, etc. Fred was assigned to Terminal control, Dan to the airport ticket counter, and George and I to reservations. The four of us would all be working at the airport.

Now we had to find a place to live. At that time, Eastern, National, and Pan American Airways, the only airlines serving Miami, were located on N.W. 36^th Street. Eastern had their own facilities at the corner of LeJeune Road and 36^th Street. National and Pan Am were together further north, on 36^th St. Today's Miami Airport is on the 20^th Street side of the old location. It's hard to believe that the airport of the 1940's with only one runway and the entire length ending at Red Road, would grow to what it is now. And it keeps growing…

The four of us decided to look for a place in Hialeah, which was very close to the Airport where we would be working. We found a great house that was being rented out by famous jockey Eddie Arcaro. We rented it for around $200.00 a month, for the four or five months we would be there. The house was fully furnished and even had a TV set. If I remember correctly, TV was only on in the evening until 11.00 PM. In any event we never watched it as our house became the meeting place for most of the United employees. It seemed that almost every night was party night at our house. We were all pretty young, but, to everyone's credit, our parties never got out of hand.

Things were going great at Eastern. We all liked what we were doing and the Eastern Management treated us very well. We had been there for three months and thinking about our return to United. It was about then that Fred and I both started to get extra attention and complimentary remarks like "We're sure going to miss you guys".

Eastern decided to give all of us a farewell fishing trip. All fifteen of us plus some Eastern escorts, set sail from Miami. We had been out for about three hours when a rain and wind storm hit us. We were bobbing like a cork, and nearly everyone was sea sick. We were a happy group when we reached shore. I don't think it was a great farewell fishing trip. I'm sure we all would have preferred a beach party.

Back at work, I was called into the reservation manager's office along with two supervisors. They started out with some compliments on how much they appreciated United Airlines loaning us to them and the great job we had all done. The conversation became more personal when they asked me to consider the possibility of staying with Eastern. They outlined an employment offer that included a substantial salary increase, management training, etc. They informed me that there were two other United employees that they would like to keep, but did not reveal who they were.

It looked like another crossroads in my life. Should I return to United Airlines in San Francisco, who had been very good to me? Should I resign from them and stay with Eastern? I had a little time to decide before I had to give an answer. It was not an easy decision; I wanted to give it a lot of thought.

 

AN AIRLINE CAREER BEGINS

It's surprising how a career starts. Looking back on my life, I guess it was fate. I started out as a dental technician to join a good friend who, like me, was waiting to join the Army. I needed something to do. The army provided me the opportunity to work with dentists, and this ended up leading me to the United States. The unpleasant situation which made me to give up this profession, forced me to seek another career path, which fortunately led me to one that I got to love. Back in the 1940's the airline industry was really just getting started. I didn't know it at the time, but here I was on the ground floor with United Air Lines which, in the future, was to become a major American airline.

I reported for work in November 1946, as a reservations agent. My job was to answer the reservation phone and book the caller on a flight to the destination requested. There were no computers in those days; each flight and date had a page with spaces for the number of seats available. When I started, our airplanes were 21 passenger DC-3s. When each 21 spaces were filled out with names written in, the flight was sold out. United's main route was from the West Coast to New York, with stops in various cities enroute.

I had my first flight as an employee in December of 1947, when the company sent me to Chicago to attend a two weeks training course. It was quite an experience; it took us three days to get there. Our DC-3 was about half full. The Stewardess, that's what they used to call these lovely ladies, gave us all blankets, as whatever heating the aircraft had was not enough for winter operation. We made three stops enroute and, at two of them, Salt Lake City and Omaha, we landed but had to stay overnight due to snow storms. At the two stops where we could not take off, United put us all up in a hotel. Finally we reached Chicago.

The United Airlines training classes were held right at the Chicago Airport. As I remember, we had about twenty participants; most from SanFrancisco, as this was to be united's main station at that time. All of us were accommodated at a nearby hotel. We would be picked up every morning and transported to the airport. The weather was terrible, the wind blew, and it snowed almost every day. Chicago's nickname as the "Windy City" certainly was apropos. The two weeks went by fast and we were soon enroute back to beautiful SanFrancisco.

While I was attending classes in Chicago, my mother moved to SanFrancisco to be with me. This was very fortunate as I had only been at work for a few days when I came down with the measles. It was just at that time that United decided that they had hired too many people as they were anticipating receiving a number of DC-4 aircraft from the military. The military was reducing their need for all the aircraft they used for the war, but ended up delaying their return to the airlines for almost six months. The SFO reservations manager had the job of deciding who would be furloughed. As I was one of the last hired, they tried to reach me at home to give me the bad news. Since I was sick in bed, my mother took the phone call. Instead of telling me, she somehow got an appointment with the reservations manager and talked him out of furloughing me. I don't know exactly what she told him, probably something about how dedicated to my job I was, how much I loved my job, etc. I guess it worked as I kept my job. (Never underestimate the power of your mother.)

 

Being a reservations agent was not a difficult job. I got to talk to a lot of very interesting people who wanted to fly somewhere and learned about all the different destinations in the USA. Flying was not the popular means of transportation that it is today. The old DC-3s were not pressurized so they couldn't fly over about 13,000 feet. Today they can fly at 30,000 feet or higher. The turbulence back then could be high at times and weather would often result in delays or cancellation of flights. In some ways, this has not changed. Mother Nature still has a say in this.

I remember being at the airport when welcomed the first DC-4 in SanFrancisco. Compared to the DC-3s, it had 44 seats instead of 21, and I remember remarking to a fellow employee: "Where in California, are we going to find 44 people who all want to go somewhere at the same time"? Filling 21 seats on a DC-3 was not always easy, back in 1946 we would often have to assure people that flying was safe, that they wouldn't get a nose bleed and that the stewardess was a registered nurse (as it was in those days). I had been with the Company for almost a year when, in November of 1948, United had a fatal crash in Brice Canyon.

As it happened after every commercial air line crash, people would cancel reservations. Phone activity would drop dramatically. It was at that time that United and Eastern airlines made an agreement on personnel. Since neither airline competed for passengers (United was primarily an East West carrier and Eastern a North/ South carrier). The agreement called for United to loan personnel to Eastern during the winter, and Eastern would loan personnel to United in the summer season. This agreement was very timely for us as the Brice Canyon crash cut deeply into our passenger loads and once again we had more employees than needed. That's when I was asked, "Would you like to spend the winter working with Eastern Airlines?" I thought for about thirty seconds… and responded YES. It was on my first anniversary with United that I found myself enroute to sunshiny Miami.