Seattle Stories: Shenanigans

I spent 13 fun years (late 70s to the late 80s) working at McPherson Furnace & Equipment, on the corner of 8th Avenue North and Harrison, near Lake Union in Seattle. The last year of my employment, we moved the company over to Redmond. Things were never the same over there – we’d lost our funky, downtown vibe.

But the new location in Redmond did put me very close to a new startup called Ariel Electronics, which turned out to be my next job and an amazing opportunity, so it’s all good. But, let’s go back to Seattle. According to Google Maps, McPherson’s  big, boxy warehouse building is miraculously still standing, long after McPherson was gobbled up by Gensco in Tacoma.

Here’s me (in the blue jeans) with some co-workers having fun on a company outing on Lake Washington in the early 1980s This yacht was the “Shenanigan” owned by our company president. He was a member of the Queen City Yacht Club, so we enjoyed many events over the years there, too. I loved spending time on Lake Washington and pounced on every opportunity to get on a boat.

And since this WAS the 80s, of course there was beer. And I believe a few bottles of cheap Blue Nun wine were involved, too.