Here is one of my favorites from the 80s, specifically late 1982 in Kansas City at the 9th Marine Corps Recruiting District HQ.
I was with Pat for maybe six months and then our secretary left for a promotion. We hired a new one…we all hit it off and the office really hums. Pat, as you know, was not above having fun at work. One day Sandy, the new secretary (they were not called admins back then) and I were having a spirited conversation. I don’t recall now what it was about but at some point I was needling her. Soooo, she picked up a paper clip and threw it at me.
I threw one back at her and we tossed some more back and forth. I forget HOW Pat got involved but I know Sandy threw one at him. I looked at her, she looked at him (he was THE Major and the Boss) with a look of: what did I do now.
Never fear, Pat picked it up and threw it back and the fight was on. We had a full-on paper clip fight for several minutes. It ended when Sandy took a fistful of them out of the glass bowl on her desk and threw them at Pat and I in a hail of cheap aluminum. We surrendered as much because we were laughing too hard to throw them back. We spent the next half hour picking up paper clips off of the carpet, laughing the entire time. I think at some point the Marines in the outer office shut the door to the rest of the HQ so we didn’t wake anyone up.
In the 28 years since, I have never done anything in an office setting that was half as much fun as that episode and it never would have happened without the wonderfully healthy tone Pat set in the office: professional but not so tightly wired we couldn’t have fun.
The picture of the family in the white shirts with red sleeves has some background. Pat and family had eaten at the world famous (or infamous depending on your viewpoint) family-style restaurant called “Strouds” in Kansas City. They got shirts which have an unuusal slogan on the back: “We choke our own Chickens.”
Here is one of my favorites from the 80s, specifically late 1982 in Kansas City at the 9th Marine Corps Recruiting District HQ.
I was with Pat for maybe six months and then our secretary left for a promotion. We hired a new one…we all hit it off and the office really hums. Pat, as you know, was not above having fun at work. One day Sandy, the new secretary (they were not called admins back then) and I were having a spirited conversation. I don’t recall now what it was about but at some point I was needling her. Soooo, she picked up a paper clip and threw it at me.
I threw one back at her and we tossed some more back and forth. I forget HOW Pat got involved but I know Sandy threw one at him. I looked at her, she looked at him (he was THE Major and the Boss) with a look of: what did I do now.
Never fear, Pat picked it up and threw it back and the fight was on. We had a full-on paper clip fight for several minutes. It ended when Sandy took a fistful of them out of the glass bowl on her desk and threw them at Pat and I in a hail of cheap aluminum. We surrendered as much because we were laughing too hard to throw them back. We spent the next half hour picking up paper clips off of the carpet, laughing the entire time. I think at some point the Marines in the outer office shut the door to the rest of the HQ so we didn’t wake anyone up.
In the 28 years since, I have never done anything in an office setting that was half as much fun as that episode and it never would have happened without the wonderfully healthy tone Pat set in the office: professional but not so tightly wired we couldn’t have fun.
The picture of the family in the white shirts with red sleeves has some background. Pat and family had eaten at the world famous (or infamous depending on your viewpoint) family-style restaurant called “Strouds” in Kansas City. They got shirts which have an unuusal slogan on the back: “We choke our own Chickens.”
You can still buy those shirts… and enjoy Strouds on your next trip to Kansas City. http://www.stroudsrestaurant.com/