Reminiscing and War Stories

When I was much younger I would occasionally indulge in the age old practice of exchanging war stories in the office. We would stand around the office, coffee cups in hand and talk about this or that and "yeah, there was this time in .." and "back in the day I ...." or some other adventure would be passed along. In the past the coffee pot was preceded by the camp fire, the watering hole or some other gathering place.

Of course, back in the days when I participated in the war stories I was about the same age as the others. These days I'm usually older, by 20 or more years, than my workmates. They have the same communal story telling as we did 30 years ago. I find, however, that I tend to back away and not participate. And it's a reflection on how I feel about being the "old guy". I really don't want to be the old guy starting his stories "when I was a young whippersnapper...".

I remember the perception of the 'old guy' I had when younger. There was always one in every office, the resident old codger who would dispense advice or experiences on most any subject that came up. Frequently these stories would be adapted to fit special occasions or to get a certain point across. To be honest, I used to cringe when the old codger started.

And now I'm the old guy and I just freeze up when one of my peers tries to pull me into the story telling. I live in fear of becoming the old guy with the stories, the stereotypical old guy.

So, how do you handle the situation? How do you politely tell your coworkers that you don't want to participate in the story telling? In my situation, I can't walk away; I need to work with these guys. So I try to fight the temptation and say something line "Me? I won't bore you with war stories" and not "well, back in the day we'd ...". Most of the time it works fine and I'm not the old curmudgeon who passes judgment on people. Fortunatly for me, there is another guy who fills that role out.

Now, if you have tell those stories, if you just have to make a fool of yourself and put the rest of the boomers in a lurch just remember that no matter how bad your story is, no matter mow many miles of ice and snow you had to walk through to get to school, there is always someone else who can top that one. Oh, one more thing, no one really listens to the old guy's stories anyway.