Continental Trailways Bus Houston - Dallas

  "Continental Trailways Red Carpet Coach Service from Houston to Dallas"

With the red carpet rolled out to the bus, hostess Linda Hulsey boards the Golden Eagle 45 minutes before departure time to put newspapers and magazines aboard and to change pillow cases and fold blankets.
 
If you managed to take a Continental Trailways bus from Houston to Dallas in the 1960s, chances are you had a hostess on board.
I never knew certain long-distance bus routes had hostesses, so you can imagine my surprise when I came across these photos from November 1968. In this Texas Magazine article, Houston Chronicle reporter Josie Weber and photographer Sam C. Pierson Jr. followed 19-year-old Dallas resident Linda Hulsey on the job.
What does a Continental Trailways hostess do? It’s not too different from flight attendants, apparently.

According to the article:

Linda’s duties begin 45 minutes before departure time when she arrives at the bus depot. After putting aboard her special kit containing first aid supplies, she changes the pillow cases, checks in the blankets, sprays the bus, puts soap in the bathroom and checks the card supply for passengers wanting to spend the hours playing cards in the observation lounge at the rear of the bus.
Once the call is made for passengers to begin loading, Linda helps passengers find their reserved seats.
On the morning run from Dallas to Houston, Linda offers passengers coffee or fruit juice with donuts. At midmorning she begins serving lunch, which consists of a sandwich, drink, banana, cookies and candy. On her 4 p.m. return trip to Dallas that same day, she serves dinner first and light refreshments afterwards.

It’s worth noting that this service was available only on the company’s Five-Star Luxury Service. It ran from Houston to Dallas three times a day: 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. In 1968, there were seven women who worked the Houston-Dallas route. If some had to stay overnight in Houston, they stayed at the Lamar Hotel, where a room was reserved for them.

Hulsey assists a passenger aboard a Continental Trailways bus.

Hulsey helps with an overnight case and locates the reserved seat for the passenger.

Outside the city limits, Hulsey starts serving coffee and donuts. At mid-morning she serves a sandwich and a drink.

At the outskirts of town, Hulsey starts her inventory of untouched food for her report to the central office.

Arriving in Houston at noon with the return trip to Dallas scheduled at 4 p.m., Hulsey has several hours to shop in Houston, take in a movie or rest at the Lamar Hotel where the bus hostesses have a permanent room.

Back in Dallas, Jan Petta, chief hostess (at desk), meets twice a month with the hostesses to discuss any problems and go over the cards passengers are asked to fill out. Hostesses are Paula Catina, Linda, Phyllis Fine and Debbie Hoops. The three other regular hostesses were on their scheduled runs and met with Petta the following day.

Continental Trailways hostess, April 1960.

From the April 25, 1960, Chronicle: “Here’s the new Continental Trailways terminal at San Jacinto and McKinney into which the bus company moved over the weekend. The terminal, constructed at a cost of $450,000, originally was scheduled for occupancy on April 15, but bad weather held up construction. The company has occupied the old City Hall site at Preston and Travis, which it leased from the city since 1939.”