Having developed software for nearly fifteen years, I remember the dark days before testing was all the rage
Umm.. wtf are you talking about? Extreme Programming is 13 years old, and it wasn't first. Even the waterfall model has testing, and it's 40 years old:
1. Requirements specification 2. Design 3. Construction (AKA implementation or coding) 4. Integration 5. Testing and debugging (AKA Validation) 6. Installation 7. Maintenance
Just because you didn't know how to test your software back then doesn't mean testing didn't exist.
He didn't say testing didn't exist. It definitely wasn't as prevalent or mandatory as now. He's right. Testing often wouldn't be done until the end of the cycle, and was frequently shortened or skipped entirely to meet deadlines. That doesn't seem to happen any more.
Of course, if they don't like what they see, you have a different problem. Figure out how to get on the right track.
"The chain which can be yanked is not the eternal chain." -- G. Fitch