In my youth, every company I joined had a dusty cabinet in the lunchroom filled with trophies, usually of the bowling variety. When asked about them, the old-timers would regale me with stories of how much fun employees used to have working there: Summer picnics, card parties, bowling and softball leagues. I wasn’t much of a sports person so I didn’t mind missing the leagues, but I did miss the notion of it, the shared experience, and winning something as a group. Then the 2000s ushered in a new kind of fun that I missed as well, mostly in tech firms: Beer on tap, a game room, cozy places to nap, and company-wide 4-day rafting trips down the Colorado River. Next up, COVID, followed by the shrinking of the tech industry, so they’re not having quite as much fun now.
Although I missed a lot of good times, I made up for it when I was tapped to take on company events in the early 80s. I had a capacity for project management and enjoyed a good time, so I became the go-to person for retirement parties and summer picnics. After moving into sales management, that facet of my job reached higher levels. I traveled to outlying divisions in the PNW and Alaska to help create and attend client events, and hosted a yearly fall function in Seattle, one of which attracted 1000 to the Columbia Tower Club, another a “Rave” at an empty warehouse where the munchies came from a food truck before food trucks were a thing, and I’ve heard that people still talk about them. If I sound like a braggart, so be it. I was pretty damn good at it.
So when we recently lunched with a large M&A firm and heard that they couldn’t get anyone to RSVP for a successful event that they’d held for years pre-COVID, I was saddened. Was it about health, a post-pandemic nervousness? Was it about underworked party muscles and a desire to connect only digitally? I hope not, because I believe in parties, in good food and people, in clinking glasses, loud bursts of laughter, strangers introducing themselves to each other, and promises of getting together in the future. In fact, I believe in them so much that we’re throwing a party at our local microbrewery on a night when they’re normally closed. We don’t have a single big or good reason to do it, but we do have many little ones: I never got a 70th birthday party, Fred hasn’t had a birthday celebration since his 75th, The Quincy Group will be in business 20 years come September, our grandson and his wife are moving to Spokane, and COVID no longer shackles us as it once did.
So cheers! Find a celebration to attend or throw one, and let’s party like it’s 2019!
Pat Detmer
April 26, 2023