Harriet had often charmed audiences relating her experiences as one of the first stewardesses for Boeing Air Transport, the predecessor of United Air Lines.  She wrote a detailed account of these experiences before her death at the age of 72 years in December 1979.  Her husband, Howard Iden has graciously given me this story which is related in her own words:

    "On May 1, 1930 the Chicago girls, and Ellen Church, were flown to Cheyenne.  Ellen had explained to us we weren't popular, to expect company personnel to be curious about us and we were not to get out of the plane until we landed in Cheyenne.  Should  there be any passengers on the plane we were not to talk to them.  We were supposed to just sit quietly and not move back and forth in the aisle.  That trip should have warned us what to expect in the future.  We were supposed to leave Chicago at 8 a.m., however on of the motors was not working correctly so we were three hours late taking off.  Neither the pilot nor copilot ever spoke with us.
   
    "The first stop was Iowa City to refuel and pick up mail, but no passengers.  After take off we ate our box lunch.  Just before reaching Des Moines, Iowa, we ran into rain and continued to fly to Omaha.  The pilots changed there and as they came through the cabin they did not speak, they just glared at us.

    "We continued to have stormy weather all the way to Cheyenne and the entire trip was a good twelve hours plus.  We had come prepared to stay over the weekend to meet the San Francisco girls and Steve Stimpson, but, because of bad weather and fog, the West Coast plane could not get through to Cheyenne for ten days.   

    "During that time, we were given several lectures by Colonel Coffin, a flight surgeon from nearby Fort Francis E. Warren.  He said we would have to see what happened to the passengers, perhaps we would have more than air sickness.  He suggested giving Amytal, a light sedation, to air sick passengers after they had used the burp cap,  recline their chair and, in winter, cover them with a blanket.  In the summer we could put a cold cloth over the upper part of their face.
   
    "The rest of the time we spent learning how to put on seat covers, set up tables and how to serve the food.  The only instructions we had about a crackup was to get the passengers out of the aircraft.  If the pilot was unconscious, we were to run to the cockpit and turn off the magneto and try to avoid a fire.
   
    "When the west coast stewardesses arrived they brought our uniforms with them.  Everyone's fitted perfectly except mine, they had sent a size forty-two instead of a ten!  We were to get into our uniforms, meet Steve at the airport and have our pictures taken.  They pinned the back of my jacket and skirt with safety pins to make it look like it fit me.  We were lined up along the plane and they also sat us down, etc.  All the while we were facing the sun which was shining on a tin roof and we could not see.  We were told to close our eyes and to open them when they said ready.  Not one of us thought we would see those awful pictures again, but they were part of history and we have lived with them.  A tailor in Cheyenne stayed up all night to fit my uniform as I was to leave the following morning.
   
    "The planes in which we flew were Boeing 80-A Trimotors which carried ten passengers at a cruising speed of a hundred twenty-five miles per hour.  The plane consisted of a cockpit, mail pit, cabin, and baggage compartment in the tail.  The size of the cabin was nineteen feet long, six and three quarters feet in height and five and a third feet wide.  We had to walk down the aisle sideways as there was a double row of seats on one side and a row of single seats on the other.  Serving was difficult because of the vibrations of the plane and we had many line squalls and much turbulence flying at two to three thousand feet.  The interior of the plane was made to look like the interior of a train coach to reassure passengers by putting them in a familiar setting.  The seats were upholstered in the gray fabric and the seat could be reclined.  We also had pillows and blankets for the comfort of our passengers.  On the back of each seat was a pouch which contained a map, cards and burp cub.  Our lavatory was very nice with hot and cold water, but the toilet was a can set in a ring and a hole cut in the floor, so when one opened the toilet seat, behold, open air toilet!  Soon chemical toilets made their debut.  The only thing wrong with them was in rough weather and turbulence, I would often see the contents of the toilet running our into the cabin from under the door, which meant a quick mop up, that I didn't like!