Behind Her Smile: The Adventures of a Tall Girl from WVA and Her Life as a Stewardess by Beverly Golden Cuevas Book Tour, Guest Post, & More! {Ends 2/2/24}

Review By LAWonder10:

Behind Her Smile is an interesting autobiography of a retired airline stewardess.

The author begins writing of her childhood and the “ups and downs” her family experienced during the Great Depression Years. That was a devastating time for most people. Even when it was over, it took families and industries years to recover. However, it also allowed for some much-needed change. Unfortunately, change often goes too far and brings controversial events.

The author’s height, along with her small bra size, caused her to have various insecurities. However, she easily made friends and was able to get employment at a young age.

In her friend’s pursuit of them to become Stewardesses, her efforts to interview for the position were turned down by most recruiters. 

I had wanted to be a Stewardess too. I was devastated when I discovered the stupid qualification of the height requirement that a girl had to be over 5 foot 3 inches tall. With my 1 foot 1 1/2 inch height, I was already disqualified. I had no idea that there was a qualification on how tall as well! Fortunately for the author, she interviewed with an agent with deeper insight into the future task force and she got the job despite her height.

Many things she shared of her life I could relate to, however, her childhood was much more complete than mine was.

As changes occurred in her life, she was not always willing to have it negatively affect her life. Like normal life, she had her crushes, fun times, heartbreak, successes and failures. However, once she became a Stewardess, she loved her job, excelled and flourished in it. She got to witness the upgrade in ruling on requirements for positions -some changes were good, yet others lowered standards too much.

Beverly shares some of the popular people she met and her interactions with them. This segment of her story ends with the death of “The King”. 

In her introduction, she mentions how her life changes once she discovered Jesus Christ. This book does not delve into that portion of life. She ends the first segment with a definite closing, yet still leaves the reader wanting more.

The writing was good, except she was a little repetitious in relating some of the events in her life. On a personal point, I disliked the sex scene descriptions and the foul language occasionally used. Other words and phrases could have easily replaced those used with the desired effect and non-offensive to many readers.

Both the Title and Cover Image were well-chosen. The few photos throughout the story added to the enjoyment of the book.

I offer a Four-Stars rating for this book.

This book was gifted to me with no pressure to post a positive review.  This is my honest review

MY FIRST ELEVEN YEARS LIVING IN PARKERSBURG, WVA

I enjoyed living in Parkersburg, WVA at the beginning of my life. We were a family of five after my sister Charmaine was born in 1955. There was my Daddy Ray, Mom Helen, Brother Mike, and me.

To say we were a family of little means financially was an understatement! It seemed every time Daddy found work, he would get a job with a company that had a government contract. After the contract was finished there would always be a major layoff of employees. And sadly, Daddy was usually at the top of that list. He was a hard worker and always hoped that this last job would be one he could have for longer than a few months to a year. But that wasn’t the case.

We were unaware of our financial situation other than at mealtime Dad and Mom used to wait for us kids to eat and then they would eat whatever was left. So many times, I remembered seeing them put cornbread in a glass of milk as their meal. I do recall one Thanksgiving there was a knock at our door and there stood a young boy in a Boy Scout uniform with a clothes basket full of food for us. I remember Mom getting teary-eyed and having to leave the room for a while.

Dad brought the basket into the kitchen, and we had a lot of food for several meals that Mom
was able to fix. Mom’s Mother Violet lived with us off and on during the time we lived in WVA. She was a character! Very short. Close to 4’11. She was a wonderful cook. She and Mom made several meals that were “canned” for future enjoyment. I never understood why they were called “canned” as most of those items were in glass jars.

We had some pets to enjoy. Cats, bunnies and occasionally a dog. But since food was so scarce, we sometimes had to place them with family and friends. That was always so upsetting.

It seemed we were always outside playing. I remember Daddy using a huge cardboard box and making an airplane out of it, putting it up in a tree that Mike and I enjoyed pretending to fly.

Obviously, I never expected that was where I would actually end up working for 35 years.