Without any intention, I appear to be collecting a colorful array of bookmarks. For one reason or another, hundreds of my books wave these little flags of reminder, either telling me there are passages worth rereading or there are stories that were interrupted and never finished. Over the years I’ve used whatever’s handy to save my place. I have found a 1989 Italian restaurant receipt in Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. I have found a 1975 notice for the last issue of Ramparts Magazine in Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America.

A while back, one of these columns was triggered when my wife discovered inside my copy of Francois Truffaut’s book on Alfred Hitchcock what looked like a cartoon autograph from the movie master of suspense himself. This bookmark turned out to be real, forgotten but real. Thanks to my wife, it is now handsomely framed with its provenance.

Red carpet service.

The other day I went to our bookcase and opened my ancient volume of The Maltese Falcon by seasonal Vineyard resident Dashiell Hammett. A thick bookmark fell out and once again I was astonished. It was a 1964 two-page United Air Lines menu in mint condition. It says so much about who we were then and who we are not now.

The menu is a foldout with an abstract World’s Fair symbol design on the cover. You open it up and here’s what you see. Take the trip with me.

LEFT INSIDE PAGE:
UNITED the airline to the New York World’s Fair

Cocktails

United Air Lines Special Very Dry Martini-on-the-Rocks (Gin or Vodka)
Old fashioned
Scotch-on-the-Rocks
Spanish Sherry
Tomato Juice Cocktail

Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts

RIGHT INSIDE PAGE:

ONE-CLASS RED CARPET SERVICE

Hearts of Lettuce Salad with Sliced Egg and Anchovy Filet
Roquefort Dressing
Wafers

Braised Swiss Steak, Mushroom Sauce
Egg Noodles with Buttered Crumbs
Minted Peas
Poppy Seed Roll

Strawberry Shortcake
Coffee – Tea – Milk

This menu prepared in United Air Lines Flight Kitchen at Denver, Conrad Kung, Chef. Member Societe Culinaire Philanthropique Board Chairman, Colorado Chefs de Cuisine Association.

The menu lists with a pleasing attempt at graciousness a cuisine that once was an airline staple. Actual food. Cocktails no matter what class you’re sitting in. Swiss steak! What menu has that today? Egg noodles with buttered crumbs, minted peas, strawberry shortcake, the mind boggles. When was the last time someone offered you Spanish Sherry? Once we were so civilized. Even the chef’s credit at the bottom of the menu sounds like you’re about to dine in a French bistro in the clouds.

But what more is this menu really saying? Time to roll up our sleeves and decode.

The civility of it all starts with an actual two-paged designed menu for a classy classless meal. Please note this menu was handed out in coach class, but the implication is that all passengers ate the same meal. Possibly in the first class cabin they consumed larger portions in wider seats with linen tableware. Keep in mind that all passengers had real plates and glasses and real cutlery. There was a hint of equality in the experience.

A generous cruet of two drinks for starters. Are you kidding me? What were they trying to do? Please the customer? Giving you the feeling you’re getting your money’s worth? What a concept!

Swiss Steak was a traditional dish back then, but its popularity had nothing to do with democracy or neutrality. This piece of meat never saw Switzerland. “Swissing” was a technique for tenderizing round steak by pounding it, flattening it, then braising it in a pot with mushroom sauce or stewed tomatoes. In England it was called Smothered Steak, a concept that apparently sounded too violent for the untrusting American palette. And it was often served with that non-Italian pasta called egg noodles, usually reserved for Beef Stroganoff, a dish that lost favor in the Cold War.

When I was growing up in Denver, I ate similar meals prepared like this without having to get on a plane. A big night out for my family was dining at the Sky Chef restaurant atop Stapleton Airport, watching takeoffs and landings between courses; an adventure in the changing world. After all, back then our romance with air travel was fairly new and still passionate. As is often the case with young love, both sides showed their best faces.

This airline menu is like a piece of our moral fiber, substantial enough to show that quite possibly we were once better than we are now. It’s been a long fall down the rabbit hole from Swiss Steak and buttered noodles to spicy trail mix and craisins.

This menu was served up in the pre-cable era when we were all watching basically four TV channels: NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS. If we were not all on the same page then, we were at least in the same chapter. Today we are not even in the same book. A slightly saner time before Presidential campaign language and foreign shoes became implements of terror, back when there were only communists under our beds. Now we probably have cameras there.

Today you can find versions of that 1964 menu in post card form on eBay. I’m keeping mine. Maybe the next bookmark I find will be a 1958 baseball card of Ryne Duren, the year the pitcher with Coke-bottle glasses, blinding speed and control issues went up to the Yankees. Or maybe I’ll find a Dead Sea scroll.

Arnie Reisman and his wife, Paula Lyons, regularly appear on the weekly NPR comedy quiz show, Says You! He also writes for the Huffington Post.