Flight Crew
THE IDEA
Giving something to the people watching the Wild Rumpus parade in Athens, GA interested me because it would be interactive. One day in my kitchen, I imagined this flight crew/stewardess costume, and I'm happy to say the real night lived up to my vision. (I'm saying "stewardess" here instead of "flight attendant" because I used Pan Am as the logo.) Connie was the pilot. She and I gave out bottled water, Biscoff cookies, pretzels, peanuts, and, to our first-class passengers, small bottles of booze.
THE COSTUME
This costume was expensive, but it's performance art and was worth it. I bought the old airplane trolley on eBay. It was from an Argentinian airline, so I printed out the old Pan Am logo and simply taped it on the side. I bought the flight attendant costume on Amazon. I found a pin that they give kids on flights and added the Pan Am logo and put it on my lapel. Connie, put together her own costume using supplies she got at an Army/Navy store and stuff she already had. I was impressed. Connie read that only a small percentage of women are pilots and that often people ask female pilots if they can "speak to the pilot." We made her a badge to hang from a lanyard that read "You ARE speaking to the pilot." I bought a box of 300 Biscoff cookies and other things to stock the cart. Tiny bottles of liquor cost $1 each in my town. In the parade, we kept supplies on the top of the cart and would stop occasionally to re-stock. We were really working.
THE PARADE
You probably know this already, but people love free things. We gave out all 300 cookies and all of our pretzels. We had some peanuts left. All the booze and water was distributed. People seemed to love this costume and that was the point. We had so much fun working the cart and the crowd. We started the night at the Manhattan in Athens, where we had one Martini—just like a flight crew back in the day! At the end of the night, we danced alongside our cart. One of my favorite moments in the parade, was when my friend Pat Allen asked if we had any warm towels and we did! I had warm towelettes in a thermos in the cart and some small tongs. Pat took a photo when I gave him one and you can see that I was so happy that he asked. Pat always says the right thing. Candy Sherman took a video of us in the parade, and it really gives a feel for what the night was like.
Giving something to the people watching the Wild Rumpus parade in Athens, GA interested me because it would be interactive. One day in my kitchen, I imagined this flight crew/stewardess costume, and I'm happy to say the real night lived up to my vision. (I'm saying "stewardess" here instead of "flight attendant" because I used Pan Am as the logo.) Connie was the pilot. She and I gave out bottled water, Biscoff cookies, pretzels, peanuts, and, to our first-class passengers, small bottles of booze.
THE COSTUME
This costume was expensive, but it's performance art and was worth it. I bought the old airplane trolley on eBay. It was from an Argentinian airline, so I printed out the old Pan Am logo and simply taped it on the side. I bought the flight attendant costume on Amazon. I found a pin that they give kids on flights and added the Pan Am logo and put it on my lapel. Connie, put together her own costume using supplies she got at an Army/Navy store and stuff she already had. I was impressed. Connie read that only a small percentage of women are pilots and that often people ask female pilots if they can "speak to the pilot." We made her a badge to hang from a lanyard that read "You ARE speaking to the pilot." I bought a box of 300 Biscoff cookies and other things to stock the cart. Tiny bottles of liquor cost $1 each in my town. In the parade, we kept supplies on the top of the cart and would stop occasionally to re-stock. We were really working.
THE PARADE
You probably know this already, but people love free things. We gave out all 300 cookies and all of our pretzels. We had some peanuts left. All the booze and water was distributed. People seemed to love this costume and that was the point. We had so much fun working the cart and the crowd. We started the night at the Manhattan in Athens, where we had one Martini—just like a flight crew back in the day! At the end of the night, we danced alongside our cart. One of my favorite moments in the parade, was when my friend Pat Allen asked if we had any warm towels and we did! I had warm towelettes in a thermos in the cart and some small tongs. Pat took a photo when I gave him one and you can see that I was so happy that he asked. Pat always says the right thing. Candy Sherman took a video of us in the parade, and it really gives a feel for what the night was like.