on to the hype

As I walked out of the building two women ran up to me. 'Oh, mrs Lindbergh,' said one,' the women of America are so anxious to know about your clothes!' 'And I,' said the other, 'want to write a little article about your housekeeping on the ship. Where do you put the lunchboxes?' I felt depressed, as I generally do when women reporters ask me conventionally feminine questions. I feel as they must feel when they are given those questions to ask. I feel slightly insulted. Over in the corner my husband is being asked vital masculine questions, clean-cut steely technicalities or broad abstractions. But I am asked about clothes and lunch boxes. Still, if I were asked about steely technicalities or broad abstractions, I would not be able to answer, so perhaps I do not deserve anything better. I turned to look at the plane. It was ready now; we could get in. 'No, thank you, I don't need a ladder to climb up.' I had a moment to wait and watch the crowd. A radio announcer was speaking into his microphone. 'Mrs. Lindbergh,' he started smoothly, with a glance at me, 'is wearing a leather flying helmet and leather coat, and high leather flying boots.' 'Why!' I thought blankly, looking down at a costume which did not correspond at all to his description. What nonsense! It was much too hot to wear leather. The sun beat down on my bare head and sticky cotton blouse; the hot planks of the pier burned through my thin rubber sneakers. What made him say that, I wondered. Oh, of course: it isn't the conventional flying costume. 'The Great American Radio Public must not be disappointed!' Anne Morrow Lindbergh, North to the orient (1935)

on to the hype

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