Thursday, April 26, 2007

Bye Bye Boeing

Uncle Milt retires from Boeing today. He's worked there since, oh, birth or so. Seriously, he went to work for McDonnell Douglas right out of school and stayed until, well, until today.

The whole fam is heading up to Boeing to see him off and celebrate his years of service. I've never been to a retirement send-off, really. Every place I've worked, when people leave it's because they found a better job (in which case we had a happy hour to celebrate) or they were RIF'd (that would be Reduction in Force) or terminated or downsized or whathaveyou (in which case we had a happy hour to bitch about upper management and their imbecile decisions). But it seems these days that no one really stays in one place long enough to truly retire from their company.

This, of course, speaks gobs about Uncle Milt's loyalty. Which is a pretty good way to think about Uncle Milt, because he's one of the most loyal people I know. He's loyal to his employer (until today, of course), but he's also doggedly loyal to his family, his friends, and even his bridge partners.

Uncle Milt is M's godfather. We've determined that through this special relationship, that makes him my godfather-in-law and Zozo's great godfather. You see, Uncle Milt is such a good guy that we all grasp at straws just to create extra special relationships to him, as if being a nephew, niece-in-law and grandniece aren't enough.

So when the e-mail went out a few weeks ago, telling us all that we were invited to attend Uncle Milt's retirement party at Boeing, you bet we all cleared our schedules. It's what loyal family members do.

I wonder if they'll give him a gold watch as a retirement gift. I also wonder why that is the standard retirement gift. Is it so you can see all the free time you now have, since you don't have to go to work every day?

What is Milt going to do after he retires? Well, today after his party he's going to a Cardinals baseball game. I can't think of a better way to kick off one's retirement, especially for a die-hard Cards fan like Milt.

Congratulations, Milt. Enjoy your last day as a workin' man.

(Many thanks to Grammy for pitching in to cover babysitting duties this morning so we can all attend without a small child disrupting everything because she's supposed to be taking her nap.)

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