I am going to rate the best job I ever had by the lasting friendships that have remained from it. Not counting the current job I have had for 32 years, the best job I ever had was at Dateline Technology in Bellevue, WA in 1984 when I moved to Washington.

Other than the one day I worked as a temp and left crying at lunch, Dateline was my first job here. It was a technology company that sold and installed Prime and Wang data storage systems. It was owned by two ex-Prime Computer employees. One had been an engineer and the other a marketing manager, Joe and Jack.

When I started there, other than Joe and Jack, there were five other guys, they were technicians and installers. Seven guys and me. Although I was only 28 years old, I was affectionately referred to as the “den mother.”

It was a growing business and in just a few years there were over twenty of us.  Joe and Jack made Dateline a fun and challenging place to work. In a few short years they made record sales and the guys were traveling all over the US installing systems. I was the secretary, girl Friday, and later bookkeeper. I handled all the travel arrangements for the guys in the field and kept in contact with them. Sometimes they head out for two places and end up to going to four other places in several states before they made it back home.

Once we had a holiday party where they celebrated the sales and success of the prior year.  After dinner, Joe and Jack played a game of “Price is Right,” employees had guessed total sales for the year, profits and sales projections.  The winner in each category was the person whose guess came the closest without going over. Since I was doing bookkeeping by this time, I did not play along. They handed out some really nice prizes to the winners.

The last prize was a simple drawing for a small radio/tv so I could participate. Jack reached in a pulled out a name…it said “Wink Martindale!”  One of the sales guys jumped up and began dancing around the room singing the notes to the “Price is Right” theme song.  Jack looked around and said, “I don’t know a Wink Martindale.”  He drew another name and I won!  I still have that little TV at the office and even though it doesn’t work on any system available today, every time I see it, it makes me smile.

At that same party there was a young woman who was our receptionist, Shannon. At one point in the evening we got up and went to the ladies room together. When we came back and sat down there was a moment of dead silence, then all 12 of guys stood up and left the room (supposedly all going to the restroom like women do… together). We sat there and laughed and laughed.

It was a fun place, we were like a family. Sadly as with a lot of successful small businesses, they had growing pains and later conflicts between Joe and Jack on financial issues and the direction for the future. I left there when my old boss, a lobbyist for Sun Oil Co. in Colorado, moved to Washington and offered me a job. Shortly after I left, they sold to a California company. A couple of the guys moved to California to work for this new company, but most found new jobs.

Of the original seven from when I started, I am still in contact with four of them: Jim, Dave, Steve and Terry.

Jim lives in California now; he was like a brother to me and my kids still call him Uncle Jim. Over the years we have visited California and Jim would go with us to Disneyland. He was like a kid and would spend hours on Tom Sawyers Island with Josh.

Dave lived with us for a while after Dateline sold. He was from Massachusetts and he moved back to the East Coast. After moving back he got married a lovely lady named Lynne. We still communicate via Facebook and he sent the kindest note a few years back that made me realize I’m part of something bigger.

The note read: “I spoke to the (church) group about how important the YMCA and the Boy Scouts were to me but to my friend beside me and to Lynne later, I spoke of a person that has made me believe and think of God more than anyone in my life; a person that held out their hand to a young man that moved across country and didn’t have many friends made me feel special and a part of her family. This person opened my eyes to church more than a young Catholic man had seen before and it awoke a desire for more that I am just now understanding and I thank the Lord for you everyday. For many years I could only read stories now I can act and talk my faith. I believe in the power of prayer and my heavenly woman you and Chris have opened your home and your heart to me and I can never repay you for all you have done for me.”

I never imagined.

Steve lives in Joyce, WA on the Olympic Peninsula with his wife Elizabeth.  When I was pregnant with Josh, I got a job as an administrative assistant at the company where Elizabeth worked, so I had worked with them both, and they both remain friends.

Terry who was one of the electrical engineers used to live here in the same town in North Bend, and we would see each other occasionally, but he has since retired and moved to Oregon.

I never heard from Jack after I left. He was more my boss than Joe was, and I think he was upset at my leaving and never really forgave me.

I did casually stay in touch with Joe. When JD was born he and his wife came to visit and brought a gift. It was a yellow sweater with little ducks on it that his wife had knitted. Joe sadly died from Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2008. Chris and I had gone to visit him a few years before that, he had lost all movement below his chest but could still speak. He had been a ballroom dancer and visiting him and seeing him this way was hard. Hard visit for us, but I know it was a blessing to him.

In summary, Dateline was the best job while it lasted, just shy of three years, and it created several of the “best friendships” that have lasted for nearly forty.

That’s me in a sales brochure that went out in 1986. I was pretending to be a technician. Jack was trying to emphasize what a progressive company we were employing women in high tech jobs. In truth I did not even know how to turn the thing on and I don’t really think it fooled anyone.