John Garteiz

Your Plane or Mine? John Garteiz

This book contains 54 true stories recounted by flight attendants who flew in the 1970s. These stories were told by Dennis Garteiz, as well as many other flight attendants and airline workers. The anecdotes were hand-typed in a manuscript but were never published at the time. After his death, the manuscript lay dormant for forty years until his brother, John Garteiz, decided to publish them. The stories are told in a visceral way because all the incidents were experienced by the authors. They are fun, funny, tragic, exhilarating, reflective, emotional, startling, inspirational, amazing, and enjoyable to read and contemplate. Although the 1970s was a much different time period than today, with different norms and mores, the emotions conveyed in the stories are the same as we experience today. One strong message that comes across when reading these memorable incidents is that these airline employees have the same feelings as the rest of us. They are all performing their job to the best of their abilities amongst all the vagaries of human nature. These testimonies are a hidden treasure trove of what it was like to fly in the 1970s.