Kate Lalk's Story

My favorite New York Air Memories:

  1. Going to Town Hall for NYA's mass interview; there were hundreds of people filling the theater seats!
  2. Being asked to wear shorts for the second interview and I came in my gum shorts-duh! (Most others were in heels and short shorts!)
  3. Getting to break a bottle of champagne against the fuselage of our first aircraft with Neal Meehan; being in "Dogfight Over New York."
  4. Flying on the inaugural flight to DCA and saying, "Please distinguish your cigarettes." I was so nervous! Remember when smoking was allowed? YUCK!
  5. Doing tray service to Boston and ending up not making it to our seats for landing. Instead we were in the galley holding the unsecured carts in place with our hands and feet!
  6. Brrrr--in December 1980, standing outside LGA in the taxi line and handing out our flight schedules to the NYC cab drivers in our Theoni Aldridge flowing, purple coats. What a hoot!
  7. Trying to wear the sarong and praying it did not fall down. Thank goodness for the khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts, my saving grace!
  8. Wearing our expansive (like an accordion), pleated grey skirt and hoping that when we came out of the lav, that the skirt was not inadvertently tucked into our panty hose.
  9. Being a recruiter (remember Chuck Peck?) and having long lines of people each day, waiting patiently in the hotel corridors, sometimes for a few hours, to get to the interview.
  10. Spending a short stint in sales hoofing it around NYC with our shopping bag filled with flying nosh bags and NY Air coffee mugs calling on NYC travel agents. The loved our bagels and cream cheese.
  11. Getting my first job as a supervisor and working inflight with a great team: Vanessa, Vicky Haren, Doris Bendel, Linda Poulos, Sheila Groves and Judy Poole.
  12. Running a DC9-30 initial training mock evacuation and one of the trainees mistakenly released the actual tail cone handle and the tail cone fell off and went crashing onto the hangar floor. YIKES!
  13. One night during initial training, I mistakenly closed the main cabin door and the airplane pressurized. Twenty FAs panicked and one grabbed the cockpit fire axe to break the window!. I frantically waved to maintenance to open the door and they thought I was just being friendly and waved back.
  14. Running back-to-back training sessions with Maryann Brogan and Harry Lord and eating, sleeping and working in our makeshift office at the LGA Sheraton.
  15. Fun times at Charlie House!
  16. Meeting my husband-to-be, Ron, when doing and in-flight check ride in DCA (the day of the Air Florida crash, soooo sad). We dated, lived in DC and NY and got married in 1985.
  17. Cherishing the special friendships I have shared with Barbara Klippstein (Brady) and Jeanne Embree (Souders) and staying in touch with other wonderful NY Air colleagues.

I left New York Air in 1983 to continue my career. Ron and I have lived in Sparta, NJ and have three children (ages 18, 15 and 9). Ron is still flying for Continental. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Kate Margolis (Lalk)

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