Me and the Sky

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 depart
And watching them fly something inside of me was started
I was eight when I told em
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 two pilots
They all complained
They said "Girls shouldn't be in the cockpit
Hey lady, hay 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 two 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 protesting 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 between me and the sky

Suddenly I've got an all female crew
The news caught and made headlines across the world
Suddenly it stops
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 fifty-one

Suddenly I'm flying Paris to Dallas
Across the Atlantic and feeling calm
When suddenly someone on air to air traffic
Says at eight forty-six 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