I attended Robert Porter’s celebration commemorating his induction into IBM’s Quarter Century Club.
Of course, there were a lot of “Can you believe it’s been 25 years?” type comments that when we used to hear our parents say, we’d say, “I’m never going to say that.”
But we’re young looking! Here is a picture of the members of IBM’s Quarter Century Club in 1926. I can assure you, we don’t look like this.
It was great to see some of the people I worked with 25 years ago, a couple of whom I have not seen in about that long.
We talked about how “good” those early years were, and wondered if it was selective memory, or what might have made it so, coming up with three possibilities:
- We were all young, just out of college, and starting our careers,
- The product we were working on was making money hand over fist (which translated into a lot less stress than the “not-only-will-my-product-be-around-tomorrow-but-will-I” environment most of us are working in today), and
- We played on a lot of intramural teams, and had a lot of friendships outside of work.
One person I hadn’t seen in many years was Matt Trzyna, who I always thought was rather sexy, and who now, I didn’t recognize until he stuck his hand out and said, “Hi John.” As soon as I heard his voice, I knew who he was.
When I worked with these people, I was married, and I just assume they all have “gotten the word,” on how the years have unfolded.
Someone asked Matt how old his girls were now, and he said, with sort of this crinkle to his face, “21 and 18,” and then after a few seconds, “Wow. And they were so cute when they were younger.”
I looked at him, and said, “That’s funny; that’s what I was just thinking about you.” Laughter all around.
25 years ago, Matt rarely left a conversation without a joke. 25 years later, today was to be no different.
He said, “Well, guys, I gotta get back. Oh, before I go, a quick joke.”
| A guy and his wife are in church, and he leans over to her in the pew and says, “Honey, I just let out a silent fart. What should I do?”
She leans back and says, “Well, the first thing you need to do is change the battery in your hearing aid.” |
Fortunately, Matt has always had funny jokes, a good delivery, and didn’t tell the same ones over and over. That, too, hasn’t changed in 25 years.
It was a nice nostalgic trip, and I left leaving glad that I had been included.
I joined Kevin (already in progress) at Helios for the afternoon, where I made my car reservation for my Boston trip, paid my AMEX bill online, and checked in with work.
Later, I captured my thoughts (laid out above) from this morning’s gathering.
I walked around Lake Johnson, and later met Joe, David, Kevin, and Joey for Trailer Park Prize Night.
It was Miss White Trash 2006 night, which was billed as, “Girlz From The ‘Hood Compete For ‘Not-So-Fabulous’ Prizes.”
If you weren’t there, you didn’t miss a thing. It was kind of funny when the winner was crowned; she seemed to get emotional, and almost started crying. I think she was acting.
Not sure how it all fits into political correctness, but the Miss White Trash winner was African-American. I guess since it’s not Miss Caucasian Trash, it’s not an issue.
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