Cock of the Walk

You may be thinking, "Has Escobar lost it? Why the heck would he talk about some 'Cock of the Walk' in his blog?" Trust me, there is a relevant theme here. Last week during my trip to the Tennessee Mid-South Aviation Conference in Nashville, AMT team member Bob Graf and I decided to take Mark Pearson with Lear Chemical (the company that manufactures ACF-50) out for dinner. Dave with Barry Controls recommended a restaurant called Cock of the Walk. He said it was a fun family-style dining experience. He assured us there was a story behind the name. So later that afternoon we hopped in a cab and told the driver to take us to Cock of the Walk. When he didn’t bust out laughing, we figured this place was for real. Sure enough, as we drove up to the restaurant, we smelled the fish a frying. The hostess seated us and we ordered a pitcher of Shiner Bock (as a native Texan, this is toward the top of my list of favorite beers). The beer arrived in a metal pitcher and we drank out of tin cups. We ordered supper, and I took a closer look at the menu (which was printed out on the paper placemat) to read the story of Cock of the Walk. The story In the early 1800s, much of the nation’s commerce took place as a result of riverboats transporting goods such as cotton and tobacco. Before steamboats came along, all commercial riverboats were either keelboats (pointed on both ends so they could be pulled back upstream) or flatboats (flat on both ends; they were dismantled after a one-way trip). Folklore has it that the brawny, bawdy bunch of men that manned these boats would fight to see who got to man the rudder (the easiest job). Whoever came out on top was called the “Cock of the Walkâ€, the ruler of the roost, and the best of the best! The original Cock of the Walk restaurant was opened on the bank of the Mississippi in Natchez, MS. The owners chose the name, “Cock of the Walk†because it signified the “best of the best.†As our dinner arrived and we started to dig in to our meal of fried catfish, shrimp, hush-puppies, fried pickles, coleslaw and pickled onions, it was apparent the restaurant was the best of the best. That’s why it is such a successful franchise today. They don’t need any fancy tablecloths or crystal, they just keep serving the best catfish around. That’s what they do, and they have always striven to be the best of the best at it. Isn’t that what it means to be a mechanic? We chose our career because of our passion. In order to excel, we must do everything possible to stay on top of our game and be the best of the best…to be the Cock of the Walk. Next week the AMT team will be in Vegas for Aviation Industry Expo. Each year one of the things I like most about the show is watching the maintenance teams compete in the Professional Aviation Maintenance Olympics. The question this year -- will Midcoast Aviation make it a three-peat, or will another maintenance team take their red feather? We will find out next week. If you will be at the show in Vegas, be sure to stop by our booth in the lobby and say Hi. Thanks for reading, and as always your feedback is appreciated. Joe Escobar