R. L. Polk and Co. memories page.     

In my 26 plus years at Polk, I have loads of memories.  I'll try and find shots of ones in the past... Dale Karsten and I playing "balance the quarters on Walter Horton's Hair" (circa 1980) or how about Greg Kurtz coming in as a Leprechaun (even when it wasn't St. Patty's day (circa 1982-1990)) or who can forget the "Monazym and Van" Santa Days?  I've got loads more and will try and place them here.  In the mean time, I'll start keeping track of memories we make going forward.


Those with better memories for dates ... help me out here-

- Let's start out with the 1981 Polk Women's Softball team.  See them here.

- In 1986 we did a pretty stupid stunt at the Polk Christmas party... remember Jay?  See it here.

- How about memories of the time I won the Halloween costume contest in like 1988 or so.  Click here.

- Jerry Helmicki had the top selling team in 1990 as the List Sales team, and rewarded them with a team building event at his cottage up north.  See it here

- In 1993 I took over the NDL compilation team in Denver and hit a Nostalgia day.  See it here.

- In 1994 we rolled out our new "Mission, Vision and Values" and in Taylor we decided to have a :Mexican Fiesta Day" to celebrate.  See it here.

- In 1994 we celebrated Christmas with a little Karaoke for Julie Arnette.  See it here.

- In 1994 I served ice cream with Garry Erickson, our very first C.I.O. (Chief Information Officer).  Click here.

- My favorite shot from the South Carolina Wild Dunes strategy sessions in 1999 can be found here.

-The shot of the N.A.L.T. after the August 2nd, 2001 Nautical N.A.L.T. on Flinker and my boat.  Click here.

- The Polk "FunAtics" Cruise day in which Mary Alexander and I showed our culinary expertise... and Lisette Snider convinced me to dress in 50's attire...and I was the only guy to do so!  Click here.

- The AbiliTec 500 Sales Rally held August 21-22, 2001 in Romulus. Click here.

- The week of September 10th, 2001 was sadly memorable due to the World Trade Center acts on the 11th.  It was especially memorable for Jim Crawford, Andy Hogan, Fulbert Fajardo and Paul Van due to the fact that the terrorist acts forced the Mexico City airport to close and extended our stay by 8 additional days.  Fulbert couldn't stand it, took a prop job to Tijuana, then a cab to the border, walked across with his bags in tow, caught another cab on the other side and then rented a car at the San Diego airport.  The other three of us decided to stay.  Click here for some of the memories of that week and a half where we tried to find "fun" in the unsettling nervousness.

- We returned to Mexico, on a happier note, in November 2001 and Fulbert took some awesome photos including some of a 16th century Hacienda we visited for lunch in Puebla, Mexico (visiting VW).  See them here.

- January 2002 came the announcement that we would be consolidating our two I.T. groups into a single locations, either Southfield or Cincinnati.  After considerable evaluation, Southfield was chosen and since only a dozen or so Cinci employees opted to make the move, the search was on for over 100 replacements from within and outside of Polk.  I couldn't have been happier or prouder of the 52 we found for my new group, Data Operations.  We stayed three or four, sometimes five nights a week in Cinci trying to learn all we could from those who were leaving by September 30th.  At night, some of us were able to "let our hair down" at the Hannaford suites across the river in Kentucky.  To see what I mean, check out a few of the Data Ops gang here.  We also made it a habit of once or twice weekly doing a "Dinner with Van", inviting the visiting and sometimes homesick Southfield employees to get together for dinner and some friendly chat.  Check out one such outing at P.F. Chang's here.

- Next stop, February 2005 and Mardi Gras, er I mean NADA in New Orleans.  Andrew Price got us all some tix to a hoppoppin party and we had a blast.  Later the night Andrew and some of the salespeople won a spot on a Bourbon Street float to throw beads.  Here's a shot of the party.

- In March of 2005 and all thru 2006 I got the opportunity to go to China and help to establish their Data Operations in Beijing.  IT was an awesome experience working with a talented and eager group of bright and energetic individuals.  Here are some memories of those years.

-March 2010 Ron Young retired after 44 years (32 full-time and 12 contracting) and here was a shot of his farewell dinner.

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