Ask Liz Ryan HR: Human Resources for the new millennium
Stories from the Olden Days
STORIES FROM THE OLDEN DAYS
When I was little, my mom used to tell us how she played baseball in the street on the South Side of Chicago. She told us how a guy would come down the street with a horse-drawn cart carrying big chunks of ice for the icebox -- a box with ice in it where people kept things cold.
We kids were astounded.
"Man, you grew up in the Olden Days, Mom," we would say.
We grew up in the modern days. We had color TV (starting when I was about 10) and Stingray bikes with banana seats, and Dr. Scholl's sandals and a lady at the mall who would shoot your earlobe with a gun and pierce it in two seconds. Thank goodness we didn't grow up in caveman times like our parents!
Apart from episodes of "The Jetsons," I had no clear image of what life in 2008 might be like. Since Buzz and Neil landed on the moon in 1969, we'd be sure to have base stations on the moon by the year 2000 -- that much was obvious. The rest was fuzzy.
The last thing I foresaw was my kids looking at me the same way I looked at my mom -- as a relic from the pioneer days, who grew up in a little house on the prairie drawing pictures in the mud with a stick.
Once my daughter asked me: "Mom, was it like 'Grease' when you were in high school?'"
"No, not exactly," I said. "Have you heard of the Ramones?"
She had not.
It is hard for Boomers and early Xers at times to realize just how much our youngest workmates can't relate to our histories. This summer I performed in the Colorado Light Opera production of "How to Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying)." In the show, set in 1961, there is lots of dialogue involving long-gone phenomena like Metrecal, mimeographs and the coffee cart that was wheeled into an office to supply a scheduled coffee break.
These mid-century workplace concepts were foreign to my youngest castmates, who'd turn to me for historical perspective. I vaguely recalled Metrecal as some sort of Slim-Fast-type nutritional drink, and remembered mimeographs from the coloring sheets in my first- and second-grade classes. They smelled funny and were printed on shiny paper -- I knew that much.
One of my castmates asked me, "What about staples? When did staples first appear?"
"Gosh," I said, "I don't know -- maybe in the early 20th century. If I had to guess, I'd say the 1920s."
"No way!" exclaimed one young person. "That is incredible! There's a Staples right around the corner from my house."
"I was talking about the item, a staple, rather than the retail store," I explained.
Turns out that staples (metal bits crimped into a C shape) were invented in the 1870s. I was a half-decade off.
To young people today, it's all the same -- staples, like me and my contemporaries, come from the Olden Days. Stingray bikes and "Pong" and the Ramones, they're all in the pot together with Julius Caesar and the man with the horse-drawn ice truck.
If I can just avoid the temptation to utter the words "When I was your age," I'll do okay.
Liz Ryan is the CEO of Ask Liz Ryan, a Boulder human-resources and organizational strategy consulting firm. She can be reached at liz@asklizryan.com.
When I was little, my mom used to tell us how she played baseball in the street on the South Side of Chicago. She told us how a guy would come down the street with a horse-drawn cart carrying big chunks of ice for the icebox -- a box with ice in it where people kept things cold.
We kids were astounded.
"Man, you grew up in the Olden Days, Mom," we would say.
We grew up in the modern days. We had color TV (starting when I was about 10) and Stingray bikes with banana seats, and Dr. Scholl's sandals and a lady at the mall who would shoot your earlobe with a gun and pierce it in two seconds. Thank goodness we didn't grow up in caveman times like our parents!
Apart from episodes of "The Jetsons," I had no clear image of what life in 2008 might be like. Since Buzz and Neil landed on the moon in 1969, we'd be sure to have base stations on the moon by the year 2000 -- that much was obvious. The rest was fuzzy.
The last thing I foresaw was my kids looking at me the same way I looked at my mom -- as a relic from the pioneer days, who grew up in a little house on the prairie drawing pictures in the mud with a stick.
Once my daughter asked me: "Mom, was it like 'Grease' when you were in high school?'"
"No, not exactly," I said. "Have you heard of the Ramones?"
She had not.
It is hard for Boomers and early Xers at times to realize just how much our youngest workmates can't relate to our histories. This summer I performed in the Colorado Light Opera production of "How to Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying)." In the show, set in 1961, there is lots of dialogue involving long-gone phenomena like Metrecal, mimeographs and the coffee cart that was wheeled into an office to supply a scheduled coffee break.
These mid-century workplace concepts were foreign to my youngest castmates, who'd turn to me for historical perspective. I vaguely recalled Metrecal as some sort of Slim-Fast-type nutritional drink, and remembered mimeographs from the coloring sheets in my first- and second-grade classes. They smelled funny and were printed on shiny paper -- I knew that much.
One of my castmates asked me, "What about staples? When did staples first appear?"
"Gosh," I said, "I don't know -- maybe in the early 20th century. If I had to guess, I'd say the 1920s."
"No way!" exclaimed one young person. "That is incredible! There's a Staples right around the corner from my house."
"I was talking about the item, a staple, rather than the retail store," I explained.
Turns out that staples (metal bits crimped into a C shape) were invented in the 1870s. I was a half-decade off.
To young people today, it's all the same -- staples, like me and my contemporaries, come from the Olden Days. Stingray bikes and "Pong" and the Ramones, they're all in the pot together with Julius Caesar and the man with the horse-drawn ice truck.
If I can just avoid the temptation to utter the words "When I was your age," I'll do okay.
Liz Ryan is the CEO of Ask Liz Ryan, a Boulder human-resources and organizational strategy consulting firm. She can be reached at liz@asklizryan.com.
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