Cabin Pressure with Shawn and "G"
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind that little curtain or in the galley of your favorite airline?* Buckle up and join seasoned flight attendants Shawn and G as they take you on a thrilling journey through the high skies with our brand new podcast, "Cabin Pressure!"- It's like having two fun, knowledgeable friends sharing a drink and stories at 30,000 feet.
- Whether you’re an aviation enthusiast, a frequent flyer, or someone who loves a good story, there’s something for everyone.
- Stay entertained while you travel, during your daily commute, or when you need an amusing escape.
So, fasten your seatbelt, stow your tray table, and prepare for takeoff!
Cabin Pressure with Shawn and "G"
From Takeoff to Friendship
Have you ever wondered what it's like to navigate 30,000 feet with no filter? Join us on "Cabin Pressure with Shawn and G" as we bring you behind the scenes of life as flight attendants with over 70 years of combined experience. From our rocky start as colleagues to a friendship that has endured over three decades, we share the hilarious and heartwarming tales of our time in the skies. From Shawn's transition from the military to the aviation world and G's late introduction to flying from a more modest upbringing, our stories will give you a candid look into the unpredictable adventures that come with being a flight attendant. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll get a glimpse of the unique bonds formed at cruising altitude.
In this episode, we also rewind to our early career days, recounting the nerve-wracking and often amusing hiring processes we went through. Imagine showing up to a massive "cattle call" interview with little knowledge about the job, only to land an on-the-spot offer! We dive into how people from all walks of life, including former nurses, lawyers, police officers, and firefighters, found their way into this unique profession. Through vibrant galley conversations and camaraderie built on jump seats, we set the stage for future episodes filled with more candid and insightful stories. Tune in to experience the highs and lows, the laughs, and the lasting connections that define our lives in the skies.
Be sure to follow and review us on wherever you listen to your podcast. Send us a Email at cpwithsg@gmail.com. If you liked us please tell just one friend,
Welcome everyone. This is cabin pressure with Sean and G, and you are in the galley. What's up, sean? Hey, g, what's up? Not much man. Hey, where'd you fly today? Today I flew to Fort Myers. Silver sneakers, silver sneaker express.
Speaker 2:Hey dude, I love old people. Old people are cool man. Old people want to tell you anything and everything that's on their mind and they want to give you a story after story, whether you want to hear it or not they, they do, but you know the the my favorite thing about old people what's that?
Speaker 1:no filter, no filter. They have none man. I mean they come, when they come on board, they'll sit there. They're the funniest thing.
Speaker 2:I mean that old person will pass gas and say oh, I farted yeah, I mean, they don't always admit it on the plane, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:But uh, but they're gonna do whatever they want to do but they have no filter man, yeah, there's no filter on this stuff I do, I do love old people, but hey, we've been doing this job a long time, folks I've been doing this job for 34 years okay, Okay, I've been. I started 38 last month 38 years in the industry.
Speaker 2:We are two flight attendants and we are going to be here to tell you some stories about our lives and the industry of the flight being a flight attendant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long have we been friends though? I mean it's been like 30, a little over 30 years, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've been here. We've been friends for over 30 years. That's about as far as I can remember.
Speaker 1:You know, what I remember is that we didn't like each other when we first met no, no, let's just say we definitely were destined to be friends in the beginning it was two very A personalities. You're being really nice. Yeah, I'm being really nice. You stuck two bulls in a ring and you expected them to get along.
Speaker 2:Well, ladies and gentlemen, he was the asshole, and I was just coming in the new guy.
Speaker 1:Sean. When he came in, Sean had an attitude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just a little one though.
Speaker 1:Hey, I. He came in. Sean had an attitude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a little one though. Hey, I was coming in, I was right from the military and here I got into this job by accident and it was you know. You come in with this military attitude.
Speaker 1:I'm going to take charge right.
Speaker 2:That's a little understatement of what it was. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, that is an understatement, but you know something. We'll have that story another time. Actually, it is really funny how we started off our friendship. But yeah, we've been friends over 30 years and in our job, you know, we've gone through so many different things and we talked about this all the time is what we talk about in the galley right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And what goes on on airplanes crazy things that go on on airplanes that people they really don't know about. You see some of the things that's on the news, but there's so many things that go on on the plane every day.
Speaker 2:And the funny thing is that most people on the plane don't even realize that these things are happening, because if you're not in the area of these, these situations, you're not aware. Right and and in today's world, right, everybody's on the plane. They get on, they put on their headphones, they tune everybody out. You know, leave me alone, give me my coke and I'm good type of thing right right but uh, but yeah. What we're going to be doing is telling you some good stories about the experience of being a flight attendant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know, first you've got to go back, right, you've got to go back. How do we get into this profession? Because, truthfully, whenever when I was young, I knew nothing about the aviation industry nothing.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I didn't know about flight attendants. You knew pilots because I mean nothing about the aviation industry, nothing, no, I didn't. I didn't know about flight attendants. You knew pilots because I mean, we looked up, we were in our backyard, look up and there's planes flying over. That's about it, other than a crop duster. That's about all I knew about aviation industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know. No, I was that young kid. I was enamored with aviation. I built every model plane and known to man at the time and uh, I was like thought, oh, I'm gonna grow up and be a pilot, I want to be a pilot, and that's all I had in my mind as a little kid.
Speaker 1:Now, that's great sean I. I made paper airplanes.
Speaker 2:That's good yeah, but as far as the uh commercial airline industry, nothing. I knew nothing, nor did I pay attention to it. I really wasn't aware of it. I didn't even fly on my first plane until I think I was maybe in junior high. It was my first time I flew on a plane. How about you, gary?
Speaker 1:I go back and I think a lot. When I was young, our first transportation it was not an airplane man, it was a Brown Station wagon. Right, we had five kids. Three of us were facing backwards honking our arms down for semi guys to honk their horns. That's about as much transportation that we had. We went to Florida. It was a long trip because we were back there the whole time. Planes did not exist in my world when I was young?
Speaker 2:No, nor did it exist in my world. I mean, I come from moderate means.
Speaker 1:So how does two guys that have been doing this so long end up in the airline industry? Now, I'm going to have to go, we're going to have to go back, we're going to have to go back in life just to look at this, because I know a little bit with with sean from knowing him so many years. So you got a guy that he was a military brat uh, he was army air force.
Speaker 2:Yeah, basically, basically both, both services right graduated college a brat in the army, I enlisted in the air force, got got into college, all that stuff. Yeah, it was. What did you major in college? I was in political science and physical education, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:So poli-sci and physical education Physical education. So you get your degree, you go to the service. Did you go to service afterwards? No, before.
Speaker 2:Oh, afterwards, yeah, I went to the service. No, here's the story. The story is I enlisted first, went to college because I enlisted, because I couldn't pay for college, and then I got an ROTC scholarship and then went to college.
Speaker 1:All right. So ROT scholarships, go through the military college and you come out, you're ready to take on the world and you become a flight attendant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, kind of like that.
Speaker 2:What happened was, you know young 19-year-old Sean was partying and doing the normal things of a 19-year-old right and I hook up with this gal and me and her started dating for a long time and the entire time I know her, for like five years, we dated. She wanted to be a flight attendant. So I kept telling her just apply, apply, apply. I said I don't know anything about it, but if they, if you don't know anything, they're going to tell you what you need once you apply. So if you have any deficiencies or anything like that, you're, they're going to tell you. And so, um, she finally applied and this is after I've gone to college and all that stuff and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do in my life and she became a flight attendant. So she takes off and flies away and we yeah, that's good, Sean.
Speaker 1:Sean's left in the middle of Nebraska trying to figure out what to do Sends your girlfriend away on the plane Right At a point.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, about six months, something like that. Later she comes. You know, this is way before what we have today in technology no cell phones, nothing of that. She calls my mom to get a hold of me and then she says hey, I became a flight attendant, I'm moving to Denver, why don't you move there with me? I go and I do it. And long story short, here is I'm at work one day in Denver and I open the paper and I see this giant ad. So I'm sitting at work and I see this ad about wow, this airline needs flight attendants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a major carrier right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, major carrier, and it's the same carrier she got on. So I'm like, whoa, you know what? This would be cool. We could fly around the world, be together, all that stuff. Let's do this together. So I go home and tell her all about it. I'm like, hey, you know, come on, let's do it, we can do this. And she looks at me and you know what she says Bye, no. She says no. No, I'm not good with that.
Speaker 2:And I'm like why you know Sean running around. I was built, I was fit, all that good stuff and she's like you. Remote destinations, women there was a bunch of women on the plane folks, so she wasn't comfortable with that.
Speaker 1:Now, I can see that definitely With you. I definitely can see that Right.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, the long story was, I convinced her that I should go and be a flight attendant and so I went to training and we went through our training. You know, our training was six weeks long and in the middle of the, you know, like two weeks in, they make you do all this evac evacuations and it's our big day, like to prove ourselves of what we learned, and all that stuff. And, um, right in that morning I get a phone call at the hotel before I'm taking off to go do this big test, and, uh, she breaks up with me there's a sad stories right there and I want to tell you I wasn't upset well I was in a class.
Speaker 2:I mean you're in a hundred women, right?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, you're all broken up about it, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, I was crushed. Yeah, I could see you just completely crushed at that point right, started screaming freedom, right, right, right, so, uh, so that's how I became a flight attendant. Let's talk about your story, gary.
Speaker 1:Mine's a little different, a little different. Oh my God, how did that happen? How?
Speaker 2:did Gary get to be a flight?
Speaker 1:attendant, all right. Well, I was a young gun back then, I was only 20. I had headed down to Florida. I was working, I was working. Well, I came out of college, got bored with it, went down to Florida, started working construction. Was working at a few restaurants waiting tables and a couple of friends of mine convinced me to go to this interview and I was like for what? And they're like a flight attendant, I was like I don't know.
Speaker 2:Now you had other friends that were going to do it too. No, she was a flight attendant. I was like I don't know. Now you had other friends that were gonna do it too, or was it just, they were like she was?
Speaker 1:a flight. This fits you, but she she was like you should go to this and I was like why? And she goes, you'd love this. And she's like there was gonna be tons of girls there and I was like I'm gonna go I know you were gonna go.
Speaker 2:I mean you know me, I was going yeah, so so I it was really funny.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. Again, I had no idea with the industry. So I grabbed a suit um, took a resume and I showed up in tampa and let me tell you folks, it was crazy back then.
Speaker 2:That's what they call a cattle call yeah, cattle call is what both of us went through. Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 1:It's different today, right, I mean they, they do all the zooms and everything that. No, that wasn't it no you show, you showed up and and I'm telling you, there's like 12 1300 people at this oh yeah, they're probably mine.
Speaker 2:Had probably 500 people in it, it's nuts.
Speaker 1:I mean you, you go there and you, just you. You see all these people and and you're thinking now, they're not gonna pick me exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I'm here, but no experience, this thing gonna happen right so I'm sitting there and uh, and, and I'm talking to all these people and it's actually pretty cool. Now I again knew nothing. So I went up to the interviewer but I I was listening to um, other people say what they said to the interviewer, and her name was Roni. I remember it because she asked me. She said why would you want to be a flight attendant? And I looked at her and I said well, you want me to tell you the truth or me lie to you? And she goes the truth.
Speaker 1:And I said well, the truth is I had no idea what this job entailed. Really, I didn't even know if I wanted to do the job. She just looked at me and she started laughing. She goes you're serious. I was like, yeah, I came here and I started meeting all these people. I was like I've got so many people's phone numbers. Even if I don't make the job, I'm going to have a bunch of friends after this. I said so it's pretty cool. She starts laughing, she looks at this other guy across from her and she, she, she must have got a kick out of me because, um, afterwards I'm thinking I'm going home yeah, yeah there's no way.
Speaker 2:After that, I'm going home yeah, yeah, yeah, you were sitting there. And my answer to their first, like why do you want to be a flight attendant? I was like, well, because I like to fly.
Speaker 1:You know like yeah, that was everybody else's.
Speaker 2:Everybody else had the same exact answer and I'm like, how are they like weeding out who said I like to fly?
Speaker 1:Right, that's the same. That was the same stupid answer that I heard everybody say Over and over. How do I say I love to fly when I've never even been on a plane? Right, I can't even tell them I love to fly. I was like I'm like sitting here going I have no idea, probably scared to death when I get up there yeah, wasn't it funny like during that interview process?
Speaker 2:I remember like going in there like what did you tell them? No, I told them I like to fly afterwards? Yeah, it was like and we were like, and then you're all sitting there like y'all gave them the same answer. Right, how they pick us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I'm sitting there and I'm thinking you know, this is it, I'm out of here, right? And then afterwards, what they did is they took us and they separated us, they put us in three different rooms and after that they came in and they said congratulations to one room and they erupt and then, I'm sorry, the other room.
Speaker 1:You didn't hear anything out of them and then they came into our room and they said congratulations. I was like, okay, so we go through this. So we went through this whole process Back then the cattle calls. The process was like 10 hours. It was ridiculous, I mean, how long it is. And at the end of this whole process they hired like 13 of us. Yeah, yeah 13 or 14.
Speaker 2:So here's the difference.
Speaker 1:But here's the funny thing, right One of the dudes that was in my hiring class still here today. Wow, still flew with him. Yeah, still here today. Wow, still flew with him. He's still flying today.
Speaker 2:I don't think I know anybody from my hiring class, but I definitely know some people from my class.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and the dude was. And here's the funny thing right Now, we'll get back to that too, but this dude was my roommate in training. Oh wow, that's how crazy. I mean, that's how crazy it was. Yeah, destiny Right oh yeah, so that's a shout-out to Jim.
Speaker 2:You know who you are, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he's my roommate.
Speaker 2:He's super cool man. Yeah, it's funny how you're going to hear a lot of different processes from different flight attendants and how they became a flight attendant and the steps that we went through to get there, because my steps varied just a little bit of Gary's they, like I knew I had a heads up and Gary will totally relate to this because he knows that normally when I get into things I come very prepared for what I'm getting ready to do.
Speaker 1:And I already had some notes like in my situation.
Speaker 2:So I went through that first question. They put me in that said room. There was maybe 10 of us. They were sitting in the hallway and we're waiting. Like, oh yeah, they told us to wait here, but what are we doing Next thing? I know my process was I went from that first interviewer to the person that was the vice president of the flight attendants of the company. She's sitting in front of me and she's like you know, tell me a little bit more about being a flight attendant, all that stuff and she's like, hey, uh, do you have any questions for me?
Speaker 2:and I reach in my suit pocket and I pull out this whole list of questions that I had already pre pre, pre done, you know, like I you know. Hey, you know I had already researched the company, figured out what he hasn't changed today.
Speaker 1:No, no, so I had, uh, you know, I had already researched the company figured out what it is.
Speaker 2:He hasn't changed today. No, no, so I had you know. I said I'm not going to ask you all these questions, but I'm going to ask you the two most important. And so that's how I started and she offered me the job and said hey, when can you start? And I said today.
Speaker 1:You know that's a crazy thing, right? I mean, when you think about it and you talk about, how did people get into this profession? We've got so many Folks. If you don't know about aviation, we have so many different people from all walks of life, right, yeah, and professionals.
Speaker 2:We have nurses, we have lawyers, we have police officers former, former, former military firefighters I mean, if we go through a list of friends, of all the people that we've known over the years and where that could be thousands of people, um, there is no one uh template to be a flight attendant no right, no, not at all. I mean they want everyone, they want everyone, and anyone that has a, a personality um is very well, well immersed with people yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you, if you truly like people, if you like being around people, I mean really it is an excellent job, an excellent career because you're going to meet new people every day, and every day you go to work you're going to meet somebody new yeah, I, you know I'm always amazed, though. Um, every time that I get on a plane. Everybody has a story, right, we all have stories oh yeah, there's so many stories.
Speaker 1:I mean, every day we go, go to work we're gonna hear a story about something and or or something that's gonna relate to how they got on that plane. Yeah, how they got the job. I mean, because the first thing, believe it or not, some of the first things that we say is what did you do before this job? Right, I mean, that's one of the first questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one of our jump seat questions to our fellow employees. So what, we're sitting on the jump seat to break the ice, is you know? So what did you do before this? Yeah, and then you get that look like what are you looking at, right? Or some people, some people look at you and they're like I ain't gonna tell you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the, or uh, yeah, they're gonna ignore you type of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's always a comfortable situation, folks. You know when they were sitting on the jump seat and trying to break the ice and they're just not wanting to talk to you.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they get that stone. Look in their face.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a lot of back to the point, a lot of different personalities here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's the great thing about this job is that you do. But I think that goes back to having people so many different walks of life come into this, this job, right. We have young people, we have middle age, we have older people, we have retired people.
Speaker 2:Um, it's incredible really yeah, there's no limitations to this job as far as age, sex, gender, whatever you know, whatever you, anybody can be a flight attendant. That's it. You just need to want to do it. So you know, whatever you, anybody can be a flight attendant. That's it. You just need to want to do it.
Speaker 1:So you know, the one thing that I love about like what we're doing right now is a lot of this conversation that we're talking about it occurs in the galley. So through this, if you guys like what you're hearing, trust me, stay tuned, because we in this galley, we talk about everything. When I mean everything, everything underneath the sun.
Speaker 2:There's nothing really off limits. We're gonna not try to make it so political never. No, we're gonna stay away from leaning to the religion or anything like that, but outside of that yeah, it's game on yeah exactly because we we have.
Speaker 1:We have so much fun talking about everything in the galley, right? So actually what we're doing is actually we're bringing the galley to your house.
Speaker 2:That's what we're doing. We're going to let you have some insight to what a flight attendant actually what we're doing on a day-to-day basis, some of the adventures we've had, the experiences that we've encountered in our adventures over these last 30 plus years for both of us and in addition to that, we're going to have stories for you too.
Speaker 1:We're going to bring in some guests too.
Speaker 2:We're going to have some guests to talk about some of the subject matter that we think is super important and people want to hear, but we also have.
Speaker 1:we have a lot of things that we are going to cover too, even even personal person's lives. I mean we deal with everything. I mean just like everyone else, but we deal with a lot of funny things, we do some serious things and we deal with a lot of emotional things. Flight attendants and pilots very unique group of people, wouldn't you say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're a unique group of people, but you know what? They're all good people. Yeah, they all like people. They want to help people. Each person out there on it doesn't matter, you know, it doesn't matter where you come from, where you've been, all that stuff we know when we get on the plane and we have this synergy of working together and and making this flight the best flight for that person. Now, just like everybody else in the world, we have good days and bad days, just like everybody else, because I'm sure many people can tell you stories of their bad flight attendant, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we can tell you some stories too. You got bad passengers too.
Speaker 2:We got bad passengers, too Bad passengers will make a bad flight attendant right there Exactly.
Speaker 1:A bad flight attendant will usually usually a bad flight attendant. You know, something happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot more going on, and that's the beauty of what we're doing right here. We're going to tell you stories that are about flight attendants, who we are, what we do, the experiences we're having, and we want you to actually be a part of it At first.
Speaker 1:we want to take you through the process of getting there first. We told you how we started the job. We told you how each of us got here. Next time we're going to talk about training, because there's people out there that are listening to this, wondering am I too old, is it too late, or I'm doing this, I'm doing that? Can I actually do this job right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I mean we're going to kind of step you through the steps in which we traveled to get here to this problem. We're just giving you a little taste of who we are right now and what you know, where we come from. But what the show is all about is really stepping you through the life of a flight attendant how it's how it is in the real world and how we relate to it, and the experiences that happened with us.
Speaker 2:So next, next time that we talk, then then I guess it will be about training right, Training Training is probably our next episode and we are going to not probably it's going to be our next episode. We're going to talk about our experiences going through the steps and the challenges of getting through a flight attendant training class.
Speaker 1:First day of training. Just even going through, because I'm telling you, when we talk about this, that's the one thing is, people don't understand about flight attendant training. There's a lot more to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot more to it. We have to know a lot of information, and there has to be a lot of information that has to be memorized and understood and related to in a blink of a second, because when things happen we don't have time sometimes to go look it up in a manual or something like that.
Speaker 1:So so, um, sean, if you, if you'd sit there and and say one of the favorite things that I mean that I really like about doing this job is when we go to these different airports or we go to different locations, right, I mean, over the years we've done a lot, a lot of things but a lot of people out there when they go through these airports, um, they don't know that there's like certain things, that that like a must see right, or something that right, you got to see so what we're going to do is, on this show, we're going to actually give you some good information, also for your travel around the world.
Speaker 2:So experience the places that we like food and restaurants we're going to. You know places to go, places, things to see that are close to these airports, because people think airports are just this one place to travel. It's actually there's a lot of stuff around that goes into those spaces.
Speaker 1:Also, we're going to reach out to our other flight attendants too. We're going to have them send in information, some of their favorite spots. What we're going to do is we're going to take the tally up and we're going to see which spots they think is the best, because they travel there all the time, they see all the sites and they have some of the best information each time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want to know where to eat, follow a flight attendant.
Speaker 1:Not only that, though eat the things that do, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want to know things that do, I mean talk to a flight attendant that are close by.
Speaker 1:I mean, we've got a ton of information, but we're going to, we are going to reach out to our other flight attendants from all the airlines and we're going to have you guys send us emails in, give us ideas yourself, and we appreciate every, every bit of information everyone's going to give us. But the end of the show Sean is always going to give us. But the end of the show, sean, is always going to be this the biggest tip of the day I want to start, I want to go with Chicago, chicago, right, we've got to go Chicago.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So if I was going through Chicago, A land of food. Yeah, but the must see or the must stop right.
Speaker 2:What you got to get. I if you're if I'm in chicago, you know airport. If you're in chicago airport, I'm stopping at frontera no no no dude come on.
Speaker 1:Chicago airport is known for one thing, folks, that's garrett's popcorn.
Speaker 2:Garrett's popcorn. Yeah, I don't know what he was thinking, you know?
Speaker 1:garrett's pop. Garrett's popcorn, right, because you cannot go through there without grabbing a bag. Yeah, if you don't know what he was thinking, garrett's Popcorn, because you cannot go through there without grabbing a bag.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you don't stop at Garrett Popcorn in Chicago.
Speaker 1:Families want bags.
Speaker 2:Probably children will be crying at home because you didn't bring them.
Speaker 1:That's the one thing I'll say. Oprah had right. Right, we're not getting political here, but folks we are telling the truth. And Garrett's Popcorn is for real. That's yeah, but okay, so so. So the tip was garrett's popcorn, sean, what's your favorite one?
Speaker 2:uh, chicago mix, you can't go wrong. And chicago mix is the caramel with the melted cheese mixed together. You put your hand in there and gooey, ooey stuff is all over it and you just all right, he's going a little too far, man, I thought I thought we were telling him tips. He's killing me I like the crisp. Yeah, real simple. Yeah, if you want more description or anything like that, yeah, just email me um. But you're killing me, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Ladies gentlemen, this is um this is cabin pressure, cabin pressure yeah, hey, I had a great time. I had a great time, sean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can't wait till next time, brother, all right, next time training, stay tuned you.
