Quack

Memories of a time when one quacked and didn't twitter. Events were broadcast slowly and only your postman knew what company you kept.

The recipient didn't need Facebook to remember friends contact details or Google to translate the message - the secretary had already poured through her Pons or Websters or Cambridge 5kg dictionary and prepared the message.

Your average yuppie simply opened his Filofax (File of Facts) to note the event and the Executive his massive Time Management Systems organizer: plastic (junior), black imitation leather (middle), burgundy soft imitation leather (upper-middle).  You delved through all the various categories that had to be updated. And no difficulties with e-mail or was it e.mail addresses - there weren't any and faxes were only for really important persons.

If I remember rightly this really important person didn't have a beige calf real leather bound Time Management Systems file, as was expected of his status. I seem to remember he had a simple book size Letts "One-Page-A-Day-Diary" or possibly even a blank version. He wasn't one to stand on ceremony.

Perhaps though it was due to the speed at which he moved homes and offices. Each move would have meant throwing out 365 of pages with Mittwoch or Mercoledi instead of Wednesday. Without doing this he would have turned up for work on Thanksgiving but stayed at home on  Christi Himmelfahrt. (Thursday in springtime)


I was pleased to see he had arrived in the USA safely. Not sure if he was forced to move a few months later when Hurricane Andrew hit Miami full force, the most destructive to have ever hit the US mainland up until then. I know the Burger King offices had to be closed due to the damage.


Would be interesting to see how a 2017 Donald would have communicated with the world back then.

Quack Quack (I don't like giving clues to the perplexed but look at the US Postal Services stamp)