The Pike Place Fish Family

There are commercials going around with the crab boat fishermen of "Deadliest Catch" trumpeting the products of their labor as thanksgiving treats.
"This Thanksgiving, start a new tradition," they say, "and eat crab."
"Why fight over two legs, when you can fight over eight?".

Part of me feels a real jealousy of these now celebrities. Captain Sig rode in a Navy, Blue Angel, F16 fighter jet this past summer in Seattle as the grand master of the SeaFair festivities. His brother, a long-time hardworking, Alaskan deckhand spoke on King5 News about kissing babies, shaking hands and signing pictures like he was a presidential candidate. Don't get me wrong, they work their asses off in the middle of the Bering Sea. I'm not complaining, I don't strive for this kind of notoriety.

I bring this all up because with fame, be it Discovery Channel or a $900 video from Charthouse Learning, comes a new limelight that has a whole new bag of exposure you never thought possible. Besides the body aches, calloused hands and smelly clothes, I feel a sense of kinship with these guys because we share a rock solid work ethic that is in a constant balance with the demands of being a human being with friends and family. We begin to have each other as our true and closest family. Take the cameras and videos and blogs away and we're still just Taho, Erick, Ryan, Ben, whomever. We sell fish and stay in business so we can make a difference.

With all that in mind, wednesday was a day that brought one of our own back to work. Keith, the Bear, Bish has been at home the past seven weeks nursing a broken leg. As one particularly known for his "power in brevity", the Bear was glad to be back throwing smoked salmon and a smile to his Pike Place Family.
"Good to see you Bear, how's your leg?"
"Sore."

"Cooking for thanksgiving?"
"Nope"

"Glad to be back?"
"Not sure yet, how are you?"

Some say there is magic in our orange pants and aprons (find me a man who wears overalls and doesn't smile!) Although they do keep us dry and a bit less smelly......for Bear those Grundens are keeping him the same old rock that customers have known for the past 30+ years.
Welcome back Bear....

And Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Come down to the market and throw some smoked salmon on those leftover turkey sandwiches!


Early Wednesday morning, The Bear with his brace that will follow him for the next four weeks.

Now What?

Similar to many Americans asking this question with our new president-elect, we fishmongers have been dealing with this question about ourselves. Although, this is on our main website, I thought I'd put it here to be timely I guess. We all need the reminders right?
Recently, we realized that we’d accomplished our vision to become world famous. Once we committed to our vision, things seemed to kind of naturally open up and show us the way and provide opportunities to fulfill our vision. We kept stepping into the opportunities, and we did it - we became world famous! But then we had a problem because once you’ve fulfilled a vision, you have to either sit around, rest on your laurels, get fat-headed and arrogant, or you generate a bigger vision.

So, we asked ourselves, ‘Now what?’ We began to wonder. And we created a new vision. Now our vision is ‘World Peace, an idea whose time has come.’ How are we going to accomplish this? We don’t know fully yet. It will unfold as we go…When you take a stand and commit to something, it’s amazing how the world seems to line up with your commitment and all the right events seem to just happen…”

For now, it's on our hats and I know for me, it's a whole new beast when you literally see it on our gear.
World Peace, peace through fish, world famous with a purpose. All sounds good to me!

Congrats to Obama!

We dress up too!

The day started with Mike emerging from back room duties dressed as our fearless leader Dicky. We just told him to remember imitation is the highest form of flattery right? The look, the speech, the mannerisms....it was all dead on. The day continued with vegetables, politicians, and even people borrowing our Grundens to be fishmongers! Have a look at our history with costumes!



Sam, Erik, Ben, Anders, Dicky and Johnny even got in the halloween spirit, no flying fish needed!


"rough day" for Anders as you can see


Larry, our UPS contact, ditched the suit and tie and went on the front lines!


ha!


Although, he insists it's not a "costume", Scott pitches fish just like World series MVP Cole Hamels from the Phillies!


Notice the rubber, Xtra Tuff boots on this Sarah Palin!


And I think this guy is wearing a lifetime's supply of plastic bags!? There are hands coming outta somewhere.