Some of my earliest memories of him was seeing him at work with clouds of cigarette smoke all around. In fact, there was a cigarette vending machine in the office.
As he saw "Mad Men", I asked him if it was true that there was drinking at work and he absolutely confirmed it, so far as management was concerned. The employees were generally forbidden but any manager with an office had hard liquor in their desk drawers. The executives had the actual mini-bars and they were able to get reimbursed for the liquor they bought for it as "entertainment expense". Anytime there was a major client win, the bottles came out and the celebrations began, usually ending late at night in a nearby restaurant/bar.
There was also a lot of "secretary chasing" in those days.
Summer of ‘69 I was working at National Messenger Service in Grand Central Terminal. Picked up packages and portfolios, delivered to agencies and newspapers in town like NY Magazine, the Daily News and dozens more.
Mad Men so reminds of the places I went to as a 16 year old. Hot, nicely coiffed secretaries, stylish businessman, regular guys in the mailrooms and elevator attendants.
And nobody used a bicycle ... Graf and Sachs (the service owners) gave us subway fare for each trip. It did cross my mind then if I had a bicycle I could keep the fares.
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