In December 1997, I experienced my first Christmas party with my new company. The party started around noon at Mt. Fuji, a great Japanese restaurant up on a big hill over in NY state.
Noticing the amount of alcohol my coworkers and their partners were consuming, I turned to my girlfriend around 4:30pm and said, “You wanna get out? I’m a little afraid to be on the road when these guys leave.”
I later found out the party continued on past midnight, at two more bars and then someone’s home. Of course, I was too upstanding a citizen to have fun like that. Go figure.
Anyway, that party also was the occasion to celebrate the 20-year work-anniversary of three of my coworkers: Matt, Sharon & Cyndi. At the time, I didn’t really think about how uncommon it is to stick with a single company for 20 years.
Today, we celebrated Matt & Sharon’s 30-year mark at the company (Cyndi retired two years ago, and seems much happier for it).
I think Sharon’s deliberately smiling goofily; it was too early in the afternoon for that expression. And, yes, Matt was drinking in the workplace, but it was only Coors Light, so that doesn’t count.
Congrats/condolences!
