By Mr. Pirtle, March 27, 2019 — I got my job from a close friend and a relative who had worked at American Airlines for 15 or 20 years. One of them was a mechanic and one of them was a supervisor in passenger service. My wife and I got married and she didn’t want to travel. At that time I was in construction, and in construction you just have to go wherever the jobs are, whenever they are. So I happened to luck up on asking him for a job and he happened to have one. He said it was because the military had to call this person in. I got the cargo service job, and then when the worker in the military came back he said, “Well I guess you have to go because he’s come back.” He was thoughtful enough to keep me because I had been there probably a year and a half and I had proved myself to be a fair worker. So I stayed on, and then a job came open in passenger service, which paid a little more, and I just kept advancing. I worked at American Airlines for 31 years!
As agents, we had to dress in wool double-breasted coats, even in the summertime! It really changed when American Airlines started going into Hawaii and some of the islands, and they just dressed casually with flowery shirts and things like that. So after that they changed so the whole company could dress more casually, and of course they furnished the clothes. I enjoyed that a whole lot better! They really wanted me to be a supervisor one time, and I refused because I didn’t want to supervise anybody. I just rather work and get it over with!
Everything changed when computers came in, and they put computers at the gate. I knew nothing about a computer, so I decided to retire and go home!