My parents must have thought
they had a crazy kid
'Cause I was one of those kids
who always knew what I wanted
They took me down to the airport
to see all the planes departing
Watching them fly something inside of me was starting
I was eight when I told them
that I'd be a pilot
But I was too young and too short
And there were no female captains
And my dad said, "be patient" he said,
"just see what happens"
But I took my first lesson came down from the sky
And told my father I'd fly for the rest of my life
And I got my first job flying for a mortician
In a tiny bonanza, just a corpse and me
Five dollars an hour for flying dead bodies
I had to climb over their faces just to get to my seat
And suddenly the wheels lift off
The ground is falling backwards
I am suddenly alive
Suddenly I'm in the cockpit
Suddenly everything's changed
Suddenly I'm not too young or too short
And the passengers in the back don't complain
Suddenly I'm flying company charters
Suddenly everything's high
Suddenly there's nothing in between me and the sky
American Airlines
had the prettiest planes
So I applied as a flight engineer
But the World War II pilots, they all complained
They said, "girls shouldn't be in the cockpit"
"Hey lady, hey baby, hey! Why don't you grab us a drink?"
And the flight attendants weren't my friends back then
And they said, "Are you better than us, do you think?"
But I kept getting hired
And the World War II crew, they retired
And the girls all thought much higher of me
1986 the first female American captain in history
Suddenly I'm in the cockpit
Suddenly I've got my wings
Suddenly all of those pilots protested me
Well, they can get their own drinks
Suddenly there's no one saying, "Stay grounded"
Looking down passing them by
Suddenly there's nothing in between me and the sky
Suddenly I've got an all female crew
The news talked, it made headlines across the world
Suddenly it stopped
No one saying, "You can't" or "You won't"
Or "You know you're not anything 'cause you're a girl"
Suddenly I'm getting married
And we're putting pins on the map where we've flown
Suddenly I am a mother
And suddenly shocked at how much they've grown
Suddenly I'm wondering how my parents would feel
Seeing me teaching men to be pilots
'Cause suddenly I am a senior instructor
and somehow I'm 51
Suddenly I'm flying Paris to Dallas
Across The Atlantic and feeling calm
When suddenly someone on air to air traffic says
"At 8:46 there's been a terrorist action"
And the one thing I loved more than anything
was used as the bomb
Suddenly
I'm in a hotel
Suddenly something has died
Suddenly there's something in between
me and the sky