Oh god, yes. I missed a lot of school before I went to the Congo getting shots once or twice a week, some of which had side effects. I bet there were more in 1961 than 1947 also.
I was 4. My dad was in the Air Force and got stationed in Oahu so we (my parents and my brother who was older than a baby but not quite a toddler) flew from LA to there. I remember looking out the window and seeing a seemingly endless expanse of clouds and ocean but not much else about it
I remember getting off the plane. and being scared of the stairs (This was the early 60’s). One of my mom’s cousins was married to a guy stationed there also and they met us at the plane. Everyone got a lei. I thought that was so cool.
We flew back when I was around 8 and stayed at a hotel. I think we were waiting for our car to be shipped over. They took us to Disneyland. I was excited about it but don’t remember that much about it. We got our picture taken with Mickey Mouse and did the It’s a Small World ride. I have had that song stuck in my head off and on ever since.
My first time flying alone was when I was about 18 or 19. I’d ridden with the family to Alabama to visit relatives but I had to come home sooner than the rest of them. My dad took me to Birmingham for the flight. Economy was full so they bumped me up. It’s the only time I’ve ever flown first class. It was nice but I’ve never been willing to pay the difference.
When I was in the Navy, flying home on leave, I once got bumped to 1st class. Soooooooo nice, but, yeah, not something worth paying for. Tho I will say that Premium Economy, at least on AA, was worth it for an international flight.
As a baby, I flew with my parents within the former Jugoslavia to visit my grandparents in Montenegro. It would have been a flight from Belgrade to Tivat. Later, when my family immigrated to Canada, my father went ahead and my mother and I joined him. So a flight from Belgrade to Toronto. I was a little over a year old, so I don’t remember the flight.
The next time I flew, and this is the first flight I remember, if was a family vacation to Cuba during the winter holiday when I was 7. This was a very exciting experience for me. Among other things, I think I saw a full-circle rainbow during the flight. It sparked an interest in aircraft that I kept throughout my youth, though it has waned since then.
I didn’t. My first flight was before that, and i was a babe in arms, and I’m pretty sure i wore a diaper and a t-shirt. I flew a lot as a child, and i don’t remember ever dressing up for it. (And i didn’t like dressing up, so i would remember if that were part of the experience.) The first flight that i remember what i wore (since it was photographed) would have been in 1974 and i wore my favorite striped jeans.
Looking back I remember flying solo on my first airplane trip at 13/14 yo. My folks bought a ticket for me to visit a best friend that moved to DC the year before. Nonstop on Eastern out of MIA. Actually never flew with my family when young though I did solo trips out west through my teens and twenties. Flew with my two babies solo too. One in the seat one on my lap. Once was enough always bought their own seats after that.
IIRC my parents mentioned that they flew to New York with me when I was very young, too young to remember. I was old enough to remember flying somewhere on vacation, I recall looking out the window and that we took the train back. I was a pre-teen or early teen I think?
And those are the only times I flew. And the only times I intend to if I have a choice, I’ve heard too many horror stories about modern air travel.