My Number One, All Time Favorite Joke Airline Humor

Approximately 60 years ago my father-in-law started a company called, Paco Plastics & Engineering Inc. He along with a partner set up shop in Sante Fe Springs, California. This company is one affiliated with the aircraft industry, which is an industry that builds aircraft and aircraft parts. For over 40 years they have been a supplier for companies such as Boeing/McDonnel Douglas, Lockheed, and Northrop. They have even been suppliers for the United States Department of Defense. This is a niche industry, small but necessary. In actuality the company's main focus is on injection molding with a division of metal latches to compliment the plastic products. They manufacture items like circuit breaker lockout rings and tags, circuit breaker caps, cable grommets, escutcheons, and all kinds of other plastic pieces that might be found on an airplane. The galley hardware they manufacture is made of stainless steel and aluminum. These products include locks, latches, retainers, door bolting systems, drawer slides, and other things you might find in the galley of the airplane. When my husband and I first married, he went to work for his father, starting from the ground position and has worked his way up to sole owner of this company.

An introduction and explanation of this company is necessary for you to understand the basis for my joke. Since my husband is so closely affiliated with the aircraft industry he is exposed to places on an airplane that are unusual or inaccessible to the general "ticket buying" customer. His one claim to "Hollywood Fame" is that he actually supplied most of the interior parts for the airplane set they used in the movie, "Flight Plan" starring Jodi Foster.

• Since my husbands company was asked to manufacture and supply parts for the interior set of the movie, he was invited to come to the set during filming to see how they utilized his parts and let them know if he thought it looked realistic. At the time my husband drove a yellow convertible corvette (which he polished and loved like a new born baby), but the day he was invited to go to this "swanky" filming engagement the car was not as clean as he would have liked. So instead of being embarrassed by taking a "dirty "car, my husband rolled up to the "valet parking" on the set in the 1972 mini Chevy company truck that they used for deliveries, (it has over 200,000 miles on it, no joke, I still laugh about that one.)

Anyway, back to the reason this joke is my favorite. Every time we pass through the threshold of an airplane to fly to any destination, the first thing my husband does is look on the side of the door and exclaims, "Do you know when this thing was serviced last?" That is a real comfort to know now, isn't it? Then he looks at the age of the interior and say's, "Well, I hope we make it, this thing is so old!" It is a good thing my philosophy is, "if it is your time to go, it is your time to go."

Because of this industry that he is involved in, he has also been in some pretty cool spots during a flight. He never flies without checking out the galley and talking to the flight attendants, asking their opinions on the latches. On one transcontinental flight he spent over an hour in the cockpit conversing with the pilots as they navigated us to Switzerland (that was before 911).

Now because airplanes are our lively hood, when I was sent this joke by my friend, I couldn't contain my laughter. I could totally picture this poor man in his seat, right by the lavatory in the plane. I could empathizes with him about the "penny pinching" aeronautical engineers who try to squeeze as many seats as possible into as small of plane as they can. This was supposedly an actual complaint that the poor chap jotted down on a piece of paper he found on the airplane. As you read the joke, just put yourself in that seat.

Now hold on, we are about to take off....just laugh away!