BOOMER by Tim Engel (heaven official's blessing novel english .txt) 📖

up and trying to make this writing thing come to fruition.
So back to Knotts – it was started back early in the last century – actually in the 20s. Walter Knott . A man by the name of Boysen developed a new berry which was a cross between the loganberry, blackberry, and rasp berry. The “Boysenberry” was born. So Walter started selling these at a small shack along California State Route 39. The rest was gradual and would lead to the first theme park in America. Next up they started serving wife Cordelia’s signature chicken on their wedding china. People started coming from far and wide to enjoy her delicious chicken dinners. If you visit the restaurant today you will find rosters permanently framed and mounted on the wall signed by famous people who came and enjoyed a meal. Dick Van Dyke, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball and the like.
Then daughter Virginia started selling little knick knacks to people who were waiting in line for the chicken. She later would establish Virginia’s gift shop – and it would survive for many decades.
Walter also installed a volcano that spit fire and steam at the push of a button. This also kept people amused while they waited for a table. Knott figured it payed for itself very quickly because families became very engrossed in playing with the volcano and had to be called on a loud speaker. I remember that when you pushed the button to start the volcano a little ‘devil’ would crank the contraption which created a big boom and the fire and steam would spit out of the top of the volcano.
BOEING LEADERSHIP CENTER
As I write this letter…send my love to you…remember that I’ll always…be in love with you…
Oops – I mean as I write this letter, I’m sitting in room 1308 of the Boeing Leadership Center. The Boeing Leadership Center is a beautiful big establishment in the suburbs of St Louis Missouri. ?It was established about 11 years ago as a place on the hill where Boeing Leaders could go to learn about all things Boeing. Primarily, in the vision of our current CEO Jim McNerney to take leaders and make them better. Grow our leaders; grow our business. Some people dread coming here. They don’t know any better. It’s a beautiful place. It was originally a large estate with a beautiful chateau, ballroom, and farm land. The family that still works the land has been here for 150 years. There are tall stalks of corn out there. Boeing purchased the 286 acres and in 1996 started construction on the learning center.
The service here is like that of a 5 star Hotel. But let me start from the beginning…I am currently a Senior Manager on the C-17 Program in Long Beach, California. As part of their ‘grow the people, grow the business” they ask us to come to the BLC for a week of good networking, collaboration, sharing, learning, stretching, training, growing. You name it. So on Nov 7, 2010 I boarded a 737 bound for Phoenix which hooked me up with a flight to St Louis Missouri. I wanted to fly in on Sunday so I could relax, get settled, hit the gym, take a hike to the river’s edge and just enjoy the place.
The Soutwest 737’s are terrific. Fly very nice. No problems on the flight. I met some women from Orange County who were bound for Santa Fe New Mexico. They worked for the Government and were bound for a conference all about child support. Child support? Really? Yes, they were headed there to bench mark, learn methods, new processes; I was amazed that the Government would be paying to send them to a conference. I thought that was just private businesses that did that sort of thing. But of course, the way our Government spends money, I shouldn’t be surprised.
When I got to St louis I was surprised at how nice it was. About 70 degrees and mostly clear skies. But my next experience was amazing. Since I was the only one on this flight and the only one who had just gotten in for the BLC, they didn’t send the usual van; they sent a Lincoln Continental limo. Well, limo might be a stretch, but the car is stretched longer than a typical Continental because the leg room in the back was probably an extra two feet. I asked the driver, Eula, if it was my imagination. “No”, she replied. It is longer than a regular car. “Wow”, I responded, very nice. I had ridden in a limo or two in my life. But this new, jet black Lincoln Continental rode like a dream. Eula was a very good driver.
I told her that it was nice to see some familiar sights in St Louis. I had been here about ten times back in the mid-90s to work on the T-45A transition and lawsuit to recover full scale development money. We passed the Boeing Company store on John McDonnell Drive. We passed a number of other Boeing sites. We drove for about 30 minutes to get to the BLC. A nice man at the guard gate checked to verify I was who I was. Who is that guy riding in the back of the fancy Lincoln Continental? No one famous.
You drive past the beautiful Chatea which was built out of stone by the previous owner. A ways down the hill is the gorgeous ballroom. There is an underground tunnel connecting the two. The Leadership Center is like a 5 star Hotel. The service is as good. People follow the Disney model in terms of Customer support. We wear badges with our names and people who work here graciously call us by name. “Good morning, Tim!” “Good morning, Darrell!” What can I get for you? Fried eggs? Omelette? We can make you an omelete any way you want . Darrell remembered my name for the rest of the week…he didn’t have to see my name tag. Everyone was genuine. Or at least seemed to be. They would smile, look you in the eye, patiently waiting for you to respond. I have to say that I would venture the folks at the BLC are perhaps better than DL at being Disney.
I am in a class with about 35 people from all over the Boeing Corporation. The people are all Senior Managers at various stages of their careers. Some look to be about 25 while others are closer to 65. I am probably at the right edge of the bell curve being 56. Sometimes I don’t like to admit that. I’m plenty old enough to get a discount at a number of restaurants, old enough to be in AARP, and old enough to officially retire from Boeing with a pension. But, I don’t think I could support our family. It’s certainly not a police or Highway patrol pension! People have all kinds of interesting jobs! Manufacturing C-17 transport aircraft, 777’s, 767’s, 787’s, Financial analysts from the Crystal City, folks who modify and rework black boxes in Ohio, and the list goes on.
I am there on Sunday and it’s 4PM. I find myself with a full day to burn prior to the beginning of class. Hey, this should be nice. I figure I can take a nap, go to the gym, enjoy the nice food, take a hike down to the Missouri River, and really get to know this place. Sounds like a plan!! So I begin by checking out the food. I hadn’t had any lunch and was pretty peckish. However, dinner was still a ways off and lunch was over. What to do?
What to do? Well, in every ‘lodge’ as they call it on the main floor, at the end of the aisle and overlooking the Missouri River valley, was a room of sorts. A gathering place, complete with fireplace, couches, chairs, a computer and printer, writing supplies, books, and…snacks. Snacks you ask? Oh, yes…granola bars, protein bars, yogurt, trail mix, sodas, coffee, tea, water, cheese, sandwiches, salads, cottage cheese, berries, and fruit. And I’m sure I’ve left something out. So I go take a look and find a beautiful turkey and cheese with asparagus sprouts on wheat bread. This is not your usual 7-11 / quick stop sandwich. I pick the sandwich, take some mayo and mustard, a diet Mountain Dew, a small pack of trail mix, a water, and I’m heading back to my room.
As I dig in and find this sandwich to be delicious, nutritious, healthy, even! Yum. And the trail mix is delicious as well. And the Mountain Dew is tasty, too. After relaxing a bit I decide I’ll head down to the Boeing Fitness Center. The fitness center is complete with all kinds of equipment. To start with they have a spinning area complete with state of the art stationary bicycles. At the front of the room is a video screen which I find later provides the class with sort of a simulator type experience. Like they are riding in a group outside on hills, valleys, and cityscapes. At then back of the bike room is a refrigerator full of all kinds of drinks from regular bottled water to flavored water, protein water, protein drinks, juices, and Gatorade. Next to this is protein bars, granola bars, energy bars, nuts, and other snacks. Further into the room I find a nice rack of dumbbells ranging from 10 to 50 lbs.
Next up were the cardio machines. They had stairmasters which had the additional feature of a TV screen ; nice! A ski machine which had that funny side motion you need when skiing, ellipticals, treadmills, and others. Then were various strength training machines. Some were Life Fitness, others Hoist I believe. These were interesting. You set the weight you wanted to lift and when making the motion of a bench press for example, the machine rocked forwards and backwards. I t seemed to use your weight as you performed the lift. There was a large area where you could do abs or cardio. It appeared with was kept open for various classes they might teach because just adjacent were all kinds of balls, jump ropes, medicine balls and the like which could be used in a class.
They had a Jacobs ladder. I didn’t try this – but it’s basically a climbing machine where you’re on your hands and feet and the ‘ladder’ advances at the rate at which you want to climb. I figured I would stick with some basics. I did benchpress, military press, some pull-ups, and some dumbbell curls. The workout went well. One of the things I really enjoy about the fitness center is that all along one sweeping wall is windows which let all kinds of natural light in. Outside I could see many trees which were in various stages of color changes. Since it was Nov 7, Fall was definitely in full swing. From