Ethnography Rough Draft

Hair tied back tightly into pony tails, all wearing black shoes, dress pants, and vests. White dress shirts must be tucked in, maroon ties and name tags on, at all times. This is what all the dinning staff does at Blenheim Newport in Middletown. Blenheim is an assissted living home where I work, and every night when it hits 4 o'clock me and the other workers set out to feed the residents, and doing this we all dress exactly alike. Not only do we dress alike we work alike. I must say the night staff is really good at what they do.

When you step out of the kitchen doors and into the dinning room you are flooded with so many things. The maroon, tan, and every other color possible carpet that lines the floor, you will notice that there is some crumbs left from lunch so later tonight whoever vacuums will have to do it even better. The vacuum is in the closet in one of the corners. It only holds tray stands, the vacuum, extra linen, and the bin of napkins. The ten tables in the middle of the room that hold four people each, and the other five tables against the yellow and white walls that only hold two people. You might notice a napkin missing or a fork missing, that couldn't have been put out after lunch because the silverware hadn't been finished when they had to leave their shift. Before even setting up for dinner, you must fix it. You see a giant column in the middle of two tables, and it is actually very pretty, but if you are waitstaff, you will realize that this is completely in the way, and if it wasn't needed to hold up the ceiling you would gladly take it out yourself! On the ceiling itself is two large, gold chandeliers. They are very beautiful and match the gold sconces on the walls. Also on the walls are pictures of boats and the beach, and in the one of the corners in the dining room there is a large window. The window is wide and big and lets the sun shine in. You can see trees, bushes, birds, and bunnies outside and if you look far enough away you can see a giant hill and on top of it is a beautiful house, and if you are looking outside at just the right time you can see the sun setting behind the hill that lights the house up. There is a table directly in front of this one window in the dinning room, and if you have that section, you know many people will want to sit there. Next to the window and that table is the soup station. It is made of dark wood and some sort of heavy granite top. The soup, saucers, and cups sit there, all very hot because of the warmers. My favorite soup is turkey barley and the worse, maybe more so for the smell, is split pea, in my opinion. I open the top of the soup to put a ladle in and notice it is neither, it is the residents favorite, clam chowder.

The waitstaff works well together. We all do things, like they were assigned to us, even though they aren't. You must fix the dining room if needed, put out the menus, make coffee, set up bread baskets and put them on each table, along with the creamers, butters, and waters. One of us will put more saucers and cups out on the soup station and bring a ladle out also. There must be crackers in the drawer at all times. The salad station in the kitchen must be restocked with dressings, Italian, ranch, Russian, and the most popular, blue cheese. There is also oil and vinegar available. You must make sure there is plenty of salad, both romaine and iceberg. The vegetables must also be filled and if there isn't any tomatoes in it, you better find some! The fruit goes fast, so make an extra box of it and put it underneath, were we hold the whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and the extra bins of dressings. The fruit is delicious, filled with watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, and honeydew. The cook of the night will bring the waitstaff together and we will do a pre-meal of all the things that is on the dinner menu tonight. If you have any questions ask now, because later it will be very busy. After that setting up is still not done, but some of the residents like to come a little early to get their favorite seats, since it is first come first, and there is no saving seats. We quickly write down the desserts in the fridge, always having tapioca, chocolate, vanilla pudding, and sugar free jello. The other desserts in there vary because it depends on what they had the night before for dessert. We finish setting up the kitchen, bringing tea kettles into the front of the kitchen so that it will be faster if we need to make tea. The night staff always begins on napkins. We fold and fold and fold until the bin that holds them is completely full, so that later in the night we will not have to waste time folding them.

We do this so quickly now, there is only five residents, at most in the dining room. One of the waitstaff will go out and get them soup, salad, or fruit, while the others still fold. After we are done, that is when more people start showing up, our timing is great. We split up into our own sections and take orders. We bring extra things, like sauce, straws, paper napkins, and once I even brought a band-aid, one of the residents had cut her finger, there wasn't any blood, since you would have had to call an RN immediately, but she just wanted one just to cover the small, paper-cut like wound. You are constantly being attacked by the red, blue, and silver walkers that line the once empty walkways. You must stop what you are doing and put them in the hallway out of the dining room, out of the way. If a person with a wheelchair comes, you must move the chair also into the same hallway. You can not help anyone up, if they ask tell them if they need help to press their buttons, that will call for an aid. If someone falls because of you, you will get in trouble. You serve them food, talk, and even joke with them, but you never help them up. You also have to make sure you know who is diabetic, their allergies, and who is on a special diet, you do not want to give them something that could hurt them. Many of them tell us stories. Many of the residents ask questions and just like to talk to you. That is my favorite part of my job. There is nothing like hearing a story of the 'olden days', about their husbands you've never met, or their kids you've never seen, even about their parents. You learn of all the places they have been and all the oceans they have sailed. The conversation isn't one sided either. They ask about your family, if you have a boyfriend, how school is going, and even compliment you on your earrings. Some even say that they love my company, and I say it back, and I really do mean it. We all laugh together. This is the best part of being the waitstaff at Blenheim. You learn so many things, and if you don't learn anything you just have a nice conversation or two.

After the residents leave for the night, usually around seven or so, you have until eight to clean up the entire kitchen, your section, and set up the dining room so it is ready for breakfast. Again we all break into our own little sections like they were assigned, when they aren't. We get everything done, and we sign it on a list. We turn the lights off and the last one out shuts the main doors to the dining room. Another night done, and tomorrow will almost be identical to the last, except for the exceptional stories. The waitstaff change out of their clothes, put our hair down, and we punch out, tired. We say goodnight and talk until we reach our cars. We are the night staff of Blenheim, we get along, we share all our stories, and we laugh, but we also work extremely hard, to make sure we give the residents our very best service.