Swing for the Fences

Here in Boeing-land, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone that either works for the big B or is married/related to someone who works there. When I was a kid growing up here, nearly everyone I knew had a dad or an uncle working for Boeing. Naturally, my rebellious nature caused me to swear I would never marry a Boeing employee. But, time has a way of proving us wrong, so naturally, when it came time to marry I married a Boeing engineer.

So yes, we are a Boeing family, like many other thousands of Boeing families here in the "Northsound service area." Quite a few of my clients work for Boeing, many of them on the 787 project, so it was with a special sense of pride that we watched the 787 roll out last Sunday.

Boeing is the largest employer in my little corner of the world, and while I wouldn't say we are a one horse town, Boeing is definitely a major driver of the local economy. One metric I've heard is that for every one Boeing employee, there are 5 to 10 other individuals in local businesses that depend on him for their job.

And while the North King/South Snohomish county area is now a bedroom community for Seattle and the Eastside as well as Everett employers like Boeing, the housing market here still rises and falls with Boeing's business outlook. Since the 787 project began, we've seen a huge number of people come here to work on the project, and I've had the good fortune to work with many of them. There's been an excitement surrounding the project that has spread to the community at large. On Sunday, that excitement finally bore fruit.

After all, it's not like we get a moment like this every day. The day of the 747 roll out is still etched clearly in the minds of a lot of people around here. That was nearly 40 years ago. This is the first new plane program to roll out in nearly 15 years. And it wasn't too long ago that the pundits were saying that Boeing's days as the leader in the commercial aerospace market were numbered. So Sunday meant a lot, to a lot of us.

And not just because it's good for the local economy. A few years ago on 9/11, the aerospace industry was hit hard. REALLY hard. It was a real blow to a lot of people in our neck of the woods. So, for us, Sunday's ceremony wasn't just a chance to share in a moment of civic pride. To a lot of us, it marked the triumph of American ingenuity over those who would like to harm us.

We were hit hard, but we came back swinging for the fences.