One of the things I was doing today (though I got started late due to Tons o’ E-mail I had to deal with) is doing last-minute archiving of old PST files into individual e-mail files. Our new corporate e-mail retention policy is in place, and as soon as I login at the office, any PST file I have will be deleted and my Outlook will be configured not to be able to use any I have on CD. *sigh*
Among the treasure troves this evening was running across an old 1994-95 archive, which included a cache of message from Margie (while I was up in Martinez, then out in Denver), as well as some to folks in the office. That’s the period when e-mail first came to my company — I don’t know if it’s frightening or amazing that it’s (only) thirteen years ago.
(Before that, my children, we wrote memos with word processors, and sent them via inter-office mail — or, if it was urgent, by fax. Thus endeth the lesson.)
One of the things of note was, of the office mail I have of that period, I (sadly) found only one name of someone who still works in the company with me (someone I hired, in fact, and someone who, after various transfers and promotions and changes of workgroup, I now supervise once again). Said e-mail was about how (in those pre-voice-mail days) I now had (gasp!) an answering machine on my phone line, so they didn’t need to Pick the extension if they heard it ringing.
Such wonders …