Back in August, Twelve Strangers in the Night was The Library of America Story of the Week. Read Handed reviewed it back in August and now I finally got to it last night.
Elizabeth M. Bisgood wrote this in 1933 when air travels was still in it’s infancy. I makes for great comparison to how far it has come since then.
The plane she described was a 12 single seat plane. Iit was 12 isle seats with windows. That too me would have been great. I like to look out the window bit I usually ask for an isle seat because I have to get up a lot and don’t like crawling over people. LOL! However, if you were traveling with someone you could not sit together.
The plane was so noisy that it made having a conversation pretty impossible. In fact, most of the passangers wore cotton in their ears. One passenger yelled to Ms. Bisgood asking if she minded if he smokes. She didn’t mind, in fact, she had one too. I remember clearly when there were smoking sections on air planes. It didn’t matter how far you were seated from the smoking section because the entire plane reeked! I always had to take a shower and wash the clothes I had been wearing as soon as possible.
The plane rode a lot lower to the ground than we do now, which made for a bumpy ride. They started out in California and a cross country flight took two days. They made a lot of stops. Ms. Bisgood didn’t explain why but I am guessing they had to re-fuel a lot. She also did not say if there was a bathroom on board, my first question. LOL!
Ms. Bisgood explained about how she felt sitting apart from the other passanger, yet feeling united with them because of the experience. Even for the passengers who had been on a flight before didn’t know quite what they would experience. Fear seemed to be quite common.
“The man across the way is rigid with fear. Any course seems terrifying to him. As we dive up into the soft mass of cloud he looks at me, shakes his head, and closes his eyes. Now that we are in the cloud all sense of motion is stopped. We seem to be suspended in a universe of cotton wool. Perhaps we are a toy aeroplane filled with stiff figures and packed in cotton for shipping.”
“The fate and the fear of any one of us is the fate and the fear of the other eleven.”
I really enjoyed reading Ms. Bisgood’s flight experience from 1933. It made me realize how far we have come. However, it seems there was one other thing that was better back then besides having a single seat, she described the food as “very good”. I don’t remember ever having a good meal on a plane and now, you usually don’t get anything in economy class except a beverage and a small package of chips, pretzels, or peanuts. I do remember getting free alcoholic beverages way back when, including free champagne.
Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.
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