If you’ve been reading my columns here in Identity Marketing with any regularity over the 20-something years I’ve been in these pages, or my blog posts featured once or twice a week on my MikeSchenker.com website, hopefully you’ve recognized by now that I try to feature a song title or lyric as the title of my piece. Today’s piece got its title from an old Dean Martin song (as opposed to what… a new Dean Martin song?). Sure, it’s an older piece but then, so am I.
It might be appropriate that I’m going with an older song, as I find myself waxing nostalgic a lot lately. As I write this, I am three days away from the 24th anniversary of moving into my home office. March 1, 1994 was the day that I began working from home, coinciding with my first day as a territory rep for what was then Hilton Active Apparel (later to be known as Hilton Apparel Group, or maybe Hilton Corporate Casuals, followed ultimately by Hilton/Rawlings Apparel. Is it any wonder I continue to have identity issues?). Now, I find it hard to imagine ever working out of an actual office again, one without a dog barking, access to my own coffee, and the freedom to shut down for a few hours in order to go yell at a bunch of 10-year-olds (also known as coaching Little League).
Furthering down this rabbit hole of photographs and memories (an alternate title for this column, as that’s a Jim Croce song) is the process of packing up this office, as the Trophy Wife and I are embarking on a new experience… leaving the bi-polar weather of the northeast and moving to the Promised Land, where all New Yorkers of a certain age have to move. According to this (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/180144053814935351/) we’re ahead of schedule.
In the process of packing and (I am proud to say: purging), I have found so many items and reminders of my career in the promotional products industry. While I have not yet gotten to the hall closet where I will find several Peerless Umbrella models (some nearly 30 years old and they’re still holding up), as well as some Hilton outerwear that most likely won’t make the trip to Florida (I doubt I’m going to need a three-in-one winter weight jacket), my office is full of, well… stuff.
I had this discussion the other day on Facebook, with someone who claimed that she was a “hoarder.” I don’t consider myself that at all. I prefer to think of myself as a corporate historian, or archivist. For that reason, I kept a copy of every Hilton catalogue from the 14 years I spent there, which, if you’re doing the math, is actually more than 14 issues, as we produced more than one a year for several years, not to mention those of our affiliate company, United Sports Apparel.
Why did I keep these? Again, for historical purposes, in case I ever needed to refer back to (now) 25-year-old corporate apparel trends. To my credit, I did get rid of my expense reports and printed correspondence from that era several years ago.
Why I still had a pile of discount coupons, which expired at the end of 2005, is anyone’s guess. A semi-truth here is that these coupons got buried beneath some other “memories,” all of which have since been tossed (full disclosure: whenever possible, paperwork such as these are being recycled, good global citizen that I am). Why I didn’t give these coupons out to clients before they expired is a whole ’nother topic. I somehow doubt that my doing so would have kept that great company from shutting the lights two years later.
I’m not yet sure of what I’m going to do with the piles of actual paperwork I accumulated during my lawsuit against another employer, which simply stopped paying me and reimbursing me for my expenses. To those of you not familiar with this tale, I’ll cut to the chase and report that, yes… I won the case against them. The bad news is that the ownership went into hiding, never to surface in this country again, thus negating my victory. Moral victories suck.
In addition to some bobbleheads crafted in my own image (except for the one with the suspenders – I haven’t worn suspenders since my toddler days or perhaps during a brief, unfortunate period in the ’80s when Robin Williams nearly made them fashionable), there are several industry awards and trophies which are going to severely cut into my bubblewrap inventory. The plaques on the wall from my regional association Board of Directors days, as well as my service to PPAI and the aforementioned Little League, will all get packed and shipped to our new home. Whether or not any of these things will get unpacked remains to be seen.
I’ve got one wall covered with photos… many from those Board of Directors days, many with people who have since “gone on tour with Elvis,” industry friends and family (yes, we’re family, dysfunctional though we may be), some of whom I can’t even name anymore. That’s more of a reflection on how many years I’ve been doing this, and less on my fading brain skills.
And the samples…. what the hell am I going to do with some leftover samples? Well, the fleece blankets I kept after a former company (selling hard goods) made an ill-advised foray into blankets. Those blankets are finally being put to good use, as they’re presently being used as cushioning for some of my wife’s mother’s fragile items.
I can tell that this packing process is going to take a while, as nearly everything in this office has a history and a story behind it.
Okay… final musical reference for this column, as this song is presently playing in my head: John Denver’s “Poems, Prayers and Promises”. Give a listen, if you’re not familiar. Here’s a sample of the lyrics:
“I have to say it now, it’s been good life all in all, it’s really fine to have a chance to hang around.
“And lie there by the fire and watch the evening tire, while all my friends and my old lady sit and pass a pipe around.
“The changes somehow frighten me, still I have to smile. It turns me on to think of growing old,”
Keep listening to the music, my friends. We all have our own soundtrack.
Mike Schenker, MAS, is the Executive Director of the Gold Coast Promotional Products Association (GCPPA), as well as “all that” at Mike Schenker, Consulting. He is a promotional industry veteran and member of the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) Hall of Fame. He can be reached at mike@mikeschenker.com.