Galley: Rebranded
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007Removing and covering the labels wasn’t enough. Despite all of my efforts and hard work, I still referred to some of my galley appliances by their manufacturer name. It became clear that they all needed renaming. I tried random names, like Mortimer and Randolph, but that didn’t seem to stick. I lived with the names covered up and let my appliances just be themselves. (Electrical tape sticks through repeated washing, yet comes off when you want it to, and is available in a variety of colors.)
One day, I thought of my grandmother and her grandmother and wondered what they would think of the fancy schmancy equipment I have at my fingertips, from a walk in freezer to an ice cream maker, to a steamer oven. I though they would be pretty happy to put dinner on the table every night with the help of an immersion blender ( how did we live without them) or a bread maker.
And thus my path revealed itself.
Every day in my work now I am assisted by the women of my family who came before me: Delia and Evalina, Tista, Betty Ann, Mavis, Martha, Bridie, “Cookie Tootsie and Freddie” (all one) and Mrs Arugala; among others. I borrowed some names from my fellow crew members because a) they really wanted to be part of it and b) i thought it might help mitigate any talk of me being off my noodle for relabeling every electric device in the galley. I have kept the labeling at bay on some of the larger items (including the $4000 oven that stopped working after two months on board) for aesthetic and professional purposes, but refer to them by their new names.
