What the waitress of the year 2000 may wear. Marjorie Hannon, W-G-N actress, models this costume, designed by the National Restaurant association for exhibit during Restaurant week, May 8 to 14. That metallic hair ribbon is an antenna for ultra shortwave radio which brings patrons' orders directly to tiny earphones concealed beneath her uniform. Pockets contain condiments for those who have time to eat a leisurely meal; concentrated capsules for those who haven't. Asbestos gloves prevent burns from hot plates.
See also:
Miss A.D. 2000 (Chicago Tribune, 1952)
What was it about the past that made eating such a burden? Is there some kind cultural thing that encouraged the meals of the future to be composed of pills?
ReplyDeleteExcept for the very wealthy (who would still have had servants in the 1930s), kitchens would often have been very cramped with primitive, unre;iable equipment. As Dominic Sandbrook points out in "Never Had It So Good", meals, especially for the lower and lower-middle classes in the 1950s (so even more so in the 1930s) would have been incredibly dreary and repetitve as well as burdensome to prepare. No luxury microwaveable ready meals in those days or even fridges to keep food fresh. I suspect pills would have seemed like a boon to both the people who had to eat the food and those you had to prepare it. (One reason for the rise of obesity in the West is availability of so much cheap, *tasty* food.)
ReplyDeleteFood served with asbestos gloves....mmmmmmmm, yummy.
ReplyDeleteI'm a waitress working in 2007, and considering tip was once an acronym for "TO INSURE PROMPTNESS", I think pill form food would help. Then again, who needs pills when I am doing a really, really good job?
ReplyDeleteThat Tip = acronym thing is an urban legend.
ReplyDelete