61 years ago, Bette Nash started her career as a stewardess and now, at the age of 82, she still serves as a flight attendant and never planned to retire yet!
Bette started her career when she was 21 years old. At that time, Dwight Eisenhower was the President of the United States!
After more than 60 years serving in the sky as a flight attendant, Bette remains working with incredible stamina and a constant smile on her face
Her exemplary style is admired by many of her younger colleagues and even the passengers
According to Captain Mike Margiotta, Bette has always been a start for American Airlines ecpecially flight 2160.
“Very professional,” Mangiotta said of the hostess in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
“She’s got that old-school way of doing things,” he added
She still remembers one of the most terrifying incidents which happened on her flight. She once worked for Trump Shuttle, an airline which was briefly owned by Donald Trump in the early 90s. The plane she was in was hit by violent turbulence and caused part of a toilet in the airplane along with its wing to separate and hit the ground.
“It was just terrible, lightning kept on coming in and I think we even flew over the White House that night, which was really illegal,” she told AFP
Bette currently lives in Virginia near the border with Washington with her only son.
“I start my day at 2:10 in the morning. I have two alarm clocks and when they go off I don’t lie there, I get up,” Bette says
She then prepares food for her disabled son before going to the airport for her duty. Due to her son, she prefers the Washington-Boston-Washington route which she always gets because of her incomparable seniority.
She also recalled the time when first-class passengers had lobster and duck a l’orange for meal and used silverware and porcelain as their cutlery while the passengers in the economy cabin dined on 50-cent sandwiches and 15-cent milk
“We had five carts: we’d start with a beverage cart, then we’d have an hors d’oeuvre cart, then we’d have the entrees cart.”
Desserts followed, and then finally came ‘a cordial cart.’
At that time, flying was considered reserved for the elite and the rich.
‘There were a lot of men because they were doing business, and women came on with their fur coats, and their finery and their hats and everything. You didn’t have… the flip-flops and the sneakers and things you do today,’ Bette said
There was no mixing of classes.
Flights were either all first class or ‘tourist’ class
In the United States, pilots must retire when they turned 65 years old but the rule is not applied to commercial flight attendants as there is no age limit for them.
When asked about retirement, Bette simply said “I don’t want to think about it!” but she definitely has made up her mind about it as she replied, “I am not going to work until I am 90”
Bette celebrated her 82rd birthday a couple of days ago on December 31 and we bet she still remains as the world’s oldest and longest serving flight attendant!
We wish her a long and prosperous life and may Bette gets to continue her long career
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