Thursday, August 29, 1996
A Gathering of Fools or What Do You Mean There's No Computers
Here?
This past weekend, I took the family to a gathering of Motley Fool staff members at a picnic outside of Washington D.C. Other than seeing the Gardners on TV, I had never seen any of the other Motley Fools in person. I've only talked to them on line, so I had no idea what they were like in person. On the way to the picnic, my older son and I came up with some frightening possible scenarios:
1. Everybody talked in real life like they do online. I ran into this once in the seventies, when I went to a "Coffee Break" of CB enthusiasts at an American Legion. Everyone spoke with that fake southern accent, and were starting conversations with "breaker breaker" and giving everybody a "big 10-4." It was horrible! I sold my CB a week later. Likewise, I was terrified everybody would say "LOL" instead of laughing, and making smiley faces with their fingers to look like this ":)", and starting conversations with "want to IM?"
2. Everybody would be under thirty. According to some of the posts flaming the Motley Fools, we are all young, inexperienced investors, in other words, amateurs. While I'm flattered to be considered young at 40, I was a little nervous that I'd be the grandfather of the group. Heck, some people compare us to shoe-shine boys, hmmm, but at least we don't run under-performing mutual funds.
3. The gathering would be full of snobbish, self-centered yuppies. Everybody (but me) would arrive in a "Beamer", an Audi, or a Lexus. They'd all have cellular phones glued to their ears, and nerdy children watched by nannies. I actually went to a birthday party in the D.C. area several years ago that was like this. The couple hosting the party were supposedly close friends with the Quayles, and had pictures all over the walls to prove it. I felt bad; I don't have pictures of my close friends on my walls. I do have pictures of my mother and father, and of course my great-grandfather's stock certificates are hanging up there, too.
4. Everybody would be a nerd. They'd all be wearing these thick rimmed glasses, repaired with tape. They'd all be wearing short sleeve white shirts, and have pockets full of pens in little plastic "nerd packs." We'd listen to accordion music, you know, a good polka, while everyone showed off their latest calculator.
5. We'd all have to put on Iomega cloaks, and chant. The Gardner brothers would ride through in a limousine guarded by thugs carrying Uzis and wearing Iomega ball caps. We'd have to bow and kiss the ground as the limousine passed by. Tom and David would smile benevolently upon us all, and we would feel uplifted, and ready to face those chat rooms.
As you can guess, I was scared. Fortunately, none of this came to pass. We Motley Fools look like anybody else on the street. Actually, everybody is disturbingly normal. David Gardner was busy playing with the kids, and Tom was just talking to people. We were able to talk to them directly. I didn't even have to kiss their rings or anything like that. I was amazed at the expertise everybody showed in their own areas. The conversation was about the stock market to some extent, our experiences online, where we went to school, and about our children. Other than the tendency for us to talk about investments, which would be expected, we were all pretty average. The ages ranged from people in their twenties to fifties. Everybody I met had at least one college degree and there was a wide range of occupations represented.
Now, just a few interesting tidbits:
MF Mom was a petroleum engineer with Chevron for two years. Her husband is a doctor and has worked with my sister's husband. This was the closest I came to anything being a coincidence.
The Gardners went to St. Alban's in Washington D.C. St. Alban's is one of the best private secondary schools in the D.C. area. I grew up in the D.C. area too, but I didn't even TRY for admission to St. Alban's. (When detention is your only after-school activity, you really don't have a chance.) A little more about St. Alban's: Al Gore went to school there too, but unlike Al, the Gardners didn't learn a Tennessee accent.
MF Buck has three computers. His screen saver had the "s" word in it, which my younger son had great fun quoting. He kept telling me, "I'm just reading the screen saver." I warned him that he was heading for a TOS violation.
MF Boring won't let his daughter watch "Beavis and Butthead". Uh-oh, they just look like normal teenagers to me, just like when I was growing up. Maybe I shouldn't be encouraging young George to watch it. Hey, my father made me watch shows that showed how life was when he was a boy. Well, I guess "The Little Rascals" are a little bit different from "Beavis and Butthead." Then again, maybe not.
As a summary, we're pretty much normal people, even though my family would dispute that about me. We come from different occupations, and we have been involved in this because it is fun, and we feel we can learn from our experiences as Fools. We consider investing to be important, and wish to make our own decisions. Finally, we enjoy working with all of you, and like the involvement from each and every one of you in the chat rooms and the message boards. Fool on!