PREAMBLE

This page was inspired by and is dedicated to those at Reliance Insurance Co. (RIP) with whom I worked and on occasion partied (and on one occasion married). On my next to last day at Reliance, November 30, 2020, I sent the following email to the few employees who were still there in the final months of the company's 20-year liquidation:

What was to be a 2-week temp job ends today, over 36 years later. Almost everyone who left a parting message on the last day of his or her time at Reliance professed to have worked with the best crew imaginable. And I'm on board with that, but I can't say it as well as they did, so I'll just pass along a compilation of every farewell received from those who left before it was my turn.

Have lotsa fun, mates. 

[Here's a LINK to all those other emails.]

And while the crew that was there at the end was certainly deserving of those words, the employees who are most indelibly etched in my memory are those who were there in the early days of my 36 years. It's not hard to figure out why—we were young and didn't know any better. Our adventures began in the Radnor Claims Office and would make a couple of nearby moves in the next 15 years before the company went into liquidation. Below are photos and whatnot from those days, which it is hoped will provide a nostalgic trip down memory lane for those who were there, and perhaps a smile or two . . . for we were young and didn't know any better.

THE CAST

PHOTO COLLECTIONS (click the pics below to see each collection)

MORE STUFF FROM THE RELIANCE ARCHIVES

1. Reliance's greatest hit, "Have We Got a Girl for You." They don't make 'em like that anymore (because they'd get sued). (HERE)

2. This email from Mike F. to Pat R. remarks on the claimant's unusual injury from lifting bags of money (what's a PSS worth?). (HERE)

3. Anne B. interviews F-R-E-D-D-I-E Dean in what is surely the funniest recorded interview ever. (HERE)

4. Saul & Gayfryd kicking up their heels. (HERE) &  (HERE) And the two slumming it at home. (HERE)

5. Let's have a picnic at Shawnee-at-Highpoint on June 18 (in 1986). (HERE)

6. Phillip B.'s unusual take on the company's vacation policy. (HERE)

7. The real reason the company went belly-up—those darn directory assistance calls at $0.60 a pop. (HERE)

8. Random Note #31—The Dave Habel Story. (HERE)

9. The Brit Wins the Big Lunch. (HERE)

10. A short memo from a Reliance agent who was probably on drugs. (HERE)

11. Here's the Wikipedia entry for Reliance, written by "Muddycat." Who could that be? (HERE)

12. Toward the end, someone had the brilliant idea to rename the Claims department (HERE) as Outcome Management (HERE). How'd that go?

13. In that same era, LEO ("Lost Economic Opportunity") was all the rage.  This "Wanted" poster may refresh your memory. (HERE)

14. Then the gig was up, and they came for our files, as memorialized in this "Missing Claim Files" poster. (HERE)

15. All that remained was to publish the obituary.  (HERE) And turn out the lights (20+ years later at the conclusion of liquidation).

FIREMARK MAGAZINE & F.Y.I. LETTERS (click box in upper right corner to open)

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