In many people's minds, "flight attendants" are beautiful young girls, but there are also "empty grandmothers" in some countries, and Bet Nash is one of them. Recently, from Boston, USA, she was recognized by Guinness World Records as "the longest service flight attendant in the world", and Nash, 86, has been working on the plane for 65 years.
Bate Nash
Nash began working as a flight attendant in 1957, first at Eastern Airlines, then with American Airlines, and has been there ever since. "[Former U.S. President] Kennedy has flown all over our planes," Nash said in a 2016 interview, when she was making day-to-day preparations for the route from Washington to Boston. Nash would always be friends with the passengers, and she would hug the passengers and ask them with a genuine smile what service they needed.
When being a flight attendant was Nash's childhood dream, "The first time I had the idea of being a flight attendant was when I first flew in an airplane. I was 16 years old, sitting with my mother on a green leather couch at Washington's Ronald Reagan Airport, as a group of flight attendants stepped off a UWA plane. "When pilots and flight attendants walked through the airport lobby, I thought, 'Oh my God, [this profession] is just tailor-made for me.'" ”
Nash as a young man
After that, Nash went to college, but she never wanted to give up her dream. Shortly after graduating from college, she applied for a flight attendant job and officially became a "flight attendant" of Eastern Airlines on November 4, 1957, an airline that had gone out of business in the early 1990s. "Everybody knows what's next." She smiled as she looked at the passengers in the first class who were drinking. Nash said she spent most of her career on the New York-Boston-Washington route because it allowed her to go home at night to care for her disabled son.
For 65 years, Nash has lived through the golden age of the aviation industry and witnessed historical changes. When she first started working as a flight attendant, flying was a luxury: "People would throw elaborate parties on the plane, dress their best clothes, and eat lobsters on porcelain plates." "I was carrying a dinner plate, and I was the only one on the plane (the 'flight attendant') who had to take care of all the passengers, she said. ”
Flying was once a luxury.
Today, planes are more ubiquitous and crowded than ever, nash still has a heavy workload, and the hundreds of passengers on the plane are provided with drinks and meals by flight attendants, but her love for the job remains the same: "I love to be with people, I know my passengers, I know what they need." Some airlines think the company's reputation is important, but I think the needs of passengers are equally important, and everyone wants to be cared for. ”
When flight attendants meant that there were certain requirements for external conditions, some people called the training they received before engaging in the profession "etiquette school", Nash said, when the company hired a beautician to teach how to draw eyebrows, the "flight attendants" got the same hairstyle, and were also asked not to exceed a certain height and weight, "if you are overweight, you will give a week to lose." ”
Today, the U.S. no longer imposes height and weight limits on flight attendants, but must be able to wear uniforms. Over the years, Nash has experienced a wide variety of uniforms, with styles changing with the times, and she wears various flight attendant uniforms such as blue, white, dark blue, purple, coffee, red, etc.
When she first joined the company, the flight attendants dressed in a simple and conservative style, and by the mid-1960s, they began to wear royal blue uniforms and matching hats, "And then because it was too blue, passengers couldn't look at it, and they didn't wear it for about a year." In the 1970s, the "flight attendant" style became more exaggerated, bold colors, pants, short skirts were unveiled, and everyone wore "huge hair". "At one point, we even put on our hot pants, as well as high boots and turtleneck shirts, but fortunately the trend 'cooled down' later."
American "flight attendants" once popular hairstyles
In more than 60 years, the greatest progress has been made in the development of science and technology. When Nash first started flying around, the flight schedules were written in chalk on the chalkboard, and the operating manuals and rules were all paper instructions. Now that her American Airlines is the first airline in the United States to replace paper manuals with electronic screens and tablets, Nash has also undergone a difficult process of adaptation. "Technology has really changed everything, and I've thought about staying, but when I think about retiring or doing something else, I still want to continue working as a flight attendant." "Airlines are evolving, and you have to follow along," she said. ”
When the plane arrived at its destination, Nash chatted with familiar passengers, and the cabin was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. When asked if she was worried that technological development would eventually replace "flight attendants", she laughed: "Flight attendants can never be replaced, because people need human touch, they need people to communicate with each other." One passenger who regularly travels on Nash's route said, "I fly thousands of miles a year, and the journey with Bate [Nash] is always the best." ”
In Nash's view, everything has changed in 65 years, and only one thing has not changed, and that is the friendly faces of passengers when they board the plane. She would continue to smile and fly to the day of retirement—she hadn't figured out when she would retire yet.