Seec Coninued, Part 3

Following the final workshop of the day, I had an opportunity to shop for t-shirts to take home for my three grandchildren. I am truly blessed. My three grandchildren live with my wife and me along with their parents. It’s a great arrangement.

I took the shuttle back to my hotel and rested a bit, took a shower, had a shave, beautified myself (ha,ha) put on my blue blazer and grey pants with suspenders and headed back to the Space Center for a banquet and dance. Jeff and I sat at a table with two educators and three young NASA engineers. These guys were great. I shared that I was once an electronics engineer, but left because the industry kept changing so rapidly that I couldn’t keep up.

I envied these three young engineers. They had their whole lives in front of them. I remember sitting in my electronics class at a college in Detroit, Michigan when a guy came in from a company from Palo Alto, California and hired the whole class except the three of us who were Canadians. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t know about green cards, pursuing the American dream, obtaining employment at a leading American Company. Yes, I was a bit jealous of these three young men, but my choices led me to where I was finally at NASA. I often dreamed about going to NASA as a teenager, but my parents didn’t have the knowledge to take me to where the action was. No matter. A few decades later and I finally made it. I was at NASA, a scientist’s nirvana.

Brian Ewenson had a Canadian table just to the right of the dance floor. It was decorated with Canadian memorabilia. He had red lobsters (candy ones I think), Smarties (you can only buy Smarties in Canada) and many Canadian flags. This was a table where you met real Canadians and adopted Canadians. The adopted ones were Americans or other nationalities that just wanted to hang out at the Canadian table. What a hoot.

The food was fantastic, the Max Q Band loud, the dancers in beat, and the camaraderie fantastic. Brian and the Canadian contingent went to another bar when the dance concluded and I went back to my hotel. I wanted to insure that I was well rested for my workshop tomorrow morning.

To be continued….