MD80 cabin attendants encountered smoke in the cabin shortly after takeoff. Advised the flight crew who returned to the departure airport.

Narrative

When taking off; I heard a funny sound; unusual. Once in the air; one of my fellow crew members called me to let me know that there was smoke in the cabin. I leaned to my left-hand side and; sure enough; there was smoke in the back of the cabin. I immediately pressed 4 chimes to advise the problem to the Captain. Told him that we had smoke in the cabin. He made a PA telling passengers to listen to us; the Flight Attendants. Captain was able to communicate with us; as we were descending. We all were still in our jumpseats. The smoke happened after takeoff; because we had not even reached 10;000 FT. As we were descending; the hazy smoke started to disappear. The Captain called back and asked if it was necessary to do our evacuation. I said no because the smoke had almost disappeared; but also told him that we were going to listen to his commands just in case something happened. Thank God the landing was smooth and nothing happened. I do want to thank the Instructors -- the reason why is because the training/commands were right on the back of my mind; and all you think is about that; and to take everyone out; to get the cabin ready; etc. I think we had a great Captain. I believe there was some oil spill in the engines.