Now I am sure things have changed, (I hope) and CASA is a different operation, from that era and mindset
I was in DCA in the early Seventies. Later joined Air Nauru to fly an F28. Dropped in a year later to visit my old friends at 188 Queen Street Melbourne (DCA HQ) and tell lies about my South Pacific adventures. They were envious which is why I told them. Then wandering along one of the corridors, I ran into the same old tea lady that had been with DCA for countless years. She was the Pprune equivalent of the Townsville refueller.
Hullo Mr Tee Emm, she said - I haven't seen you for ever such a long time - have you been on holidays? And would you like a nice cup of tea, Luv?
Oh yes please Mrs Smith - I would love one. Thank you so much for asking. The old lady pours the tea out of a whacking big tea pot and gives it to me. I noticed that next to the sugar bowl on her trolley were two types of tea spoons. One lot was made of silver metal and the other lot were Woolworths plastic spoons.
I was about to carefully select a silver spoon when the old lady stopped me and said quite sternly "Have you got a carpet in your office, Luv?"
I thought of the cockpit of the F28 with its metal floor and replied "No, Mrs Smith, no carpet in my office".
"In that case Luv, you can't have a silver tea spoon - that's only for executives with a carpet in their office"....
I glumly took a plastic tea spoon realising I had never made it to the top in DCA. When all my mates on the 4th floor of DCA HQ heard about this, they all dashed out at lunch time and bought silver spoons and hung them high on their office doors as an indication of their high aspirations to be top dogs with carpeted offices in the Public Service.
