A Lovely Conversation Over Mexican Food

I went to lunch with two old friends today. In fact, these friends are doubly old. First, we have known each other for a long time. I’ve known David for over twenty years. Maybe even thirty. I’ve known Scott for fifteen years. I have no idea how long Scott and David have known each other, but probably about the same time; twenty years or more.

David, Scott and I are all in the same area. We are all IT guys from way back. WordPerfect Corporation, Borland, Novell, dead companies that we helped build and watched die. (Mostly at the hands of Microsoft, but they don’t hold my time in Redmond against me.)

And we are old. At 55, I’m the youngest. David is 57 and Scott is an ancient 66. Sitting around the lunch table at Los Hermanos, we had nearly 100 years of combined IT experience.

We try to get together every couple of months. David is local and when Scott is in from California, we have lunch. David and Scott are in sales. I’m in Program Management and Training.

So, what do three old IT specialists, who’ve been friends for years, talk about when they get together?

Some of it is pretty understandable. We talked about current technology. We talked about the influence of Social Media.

We also talked about jobs. Age discrimination is illegal. Just like race, or gender discrimination is. You know what the three of us old farts think?

Age discrimination is very real and nearly undectable. And the three of us are headed in that direction. We don’t make “long term” employment plans. We only have plans.

We also talked about current events. We mostly stayed away from politics. We’re all of the same political persuasian and don’t really find the conversation all that interesting.

Of course, we also asked about each others’ families. Scott and David knew my kids when they were little. My kids are no longer little.

But, the subject that most united us? The subject that all three of us had active experience with? It was the reason that Scott’s in town. And David and his wife in December and me last week.

One additional thing that those, especially men, over 50 have in common?

We all told stories about our colonoscopies.

Maybe it was the Mexican food that brought it to mind.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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