A BRIGHT FUTURE... busy but happy (Part 68a)

I had a long list of things that needed to be done when I got up that Tuesday morning. Realistically, the most important should’ve been doing the payroll at work. However, to satisfy Elle I headed to the appliance store first. I knew that John got there way before the store opened to the public so went right to the back door. He was sitting at a cluttered desk, writing. I asked him what he was doing as I’d expected to see him at his workbench, fixing a TV. When he looked up I could see frustration on his face. He was preparing the month end bills and he let me know it wasn’t his favorite job. I asked when he could deliver the new washing machine and he gave me one of those looks that told me it wasn’t the right time to ask that. I backed off on that topic but asked if I could put a TV antenna on my “tab”. He slowly pushed away from the desk and without saying anything reached above his workbench and pulled down a box. As he handed it to me he mumbled something about not being cut out to be a bookeeper. All I wanted to do at that point was to get out of his hair but hearing the word “bookeeper” I immediately thought of Judy. She’d been the bookeeper for her uncle’s farm implement store back in Iowa. I immediately told him about her. He showed some interest but before getting to the point of asking how to get in touch with her he reminded me that his mother was expected back in April. I actually remember smiling as I told him she was pregnant and that she probably wouldn’t be able to work after that anyway. He handed me the phone and told me to give her a call. When I heard her voice answer and told her why I was calling I heard nothing but silence. I had to ask if she was still on the line. I put John on with her and then took off for work.

Everybody seemed to be in a good mood in the office with smiles all around. It was a holdover good attitude from the three day holiday. In the DP area one reason was that Donna, our resident sourpuss keypunch operator, wasn’t in. Whenever she was out of the office, be it on a break, lunch or a day off, the air seemed to be lighter. On this day the “give up” on her absence was that there was a lot of keypunching to be done. Jay had always been able to get permission for Allie to fill in as the “checker” with Linda moving over doing the primary keypunching. When Jay went to Irwin he was turned down. It was both year end and a short work week and he had things that he needed Allie to do. That left Jay in a real bind. He was in the final stages of testing the new appropriations accounting program that was scheduled to go “live” as of the first of the year. Her absence didn’t really affect me as I had all the keypunched changes for the week and had already started processing the Police payroll.

The “news” came from none other than Nina, the resident gossip queen. Linda, on her return from her break, was stopped by Nina and was told that Donna was transferring to the Treasurer’s office to work in the same area as her mother. Linda told us that it had been confirmed by the older lady, Hazel, who’d been transferred into the Audit and Control department from the Treasurer’s office when it officially assumed the payroll function. Jay was livid. Usually, he was almost too laid back. He got up and headed straight for the Controller’s office. When he returned he didn’t say anything. On the rare occasions when he was upset I’d learned to wait until he spoke. I’d come to work prepared to work a little late and when everybody left for the day Jay told me that the “bitch” (Donna) had completely blindsided him. She was still, officially, an employee of the Audit and Control department until the transfer was official but was on “sick leave” and still considered a DP department employee. What that meant was that, technically, Jay wouldn’t be able replace her until the transfer was completed... but that wasn’t going to be the case.

Evidently Jay spelled it out for the Controller that if we didn’t have another Keypuncher immediately he wouldn’t be able to implement the appropriations accounting to done by the computer on the first of the year. It got his attention and even though it wasn’t “kosher”, Jay was told he would be able to interview and hire a new keypuncher as soon as qualified applicants could be contacted. The Controller was going to “pull strings“ to get it done.

When I got home Elle had some news for me. Judy had gotten the job at the appliance store and was to start the next day. Elle said she was VERY appreciative for my help and gave me one of those questioning looks as she did. I had some news for her in that I had a TV antenna. Anxious to see what our new TV was like, I jury rigged it so we got at least one channel. Even with less than optimum positioning, the picture was far better than we’d been used to. For us, at least, things were continuing to go well.

The first keypunch operator applicant showed up for her interview on Thursday. Jay didn’t really have a desk, preferring to work at a table in the middle of the work space. So this sad looking woman came in and was interviewed with machines running all around her. She didn’t stay long. When I asked Jay why he said that she wasn’t interested. She told him that things were ”too chaotic“ for her to handle. The next one showed up on Friday, right at 9am. It was certainly a lot less ”chaotic” at that time of day. I saw her standing in the doorway and pretty much knew that Jay would be interested. She was well dressed, young, fairly attractive and had a big smile on her face, the total antithesis of Donna. Looking at her from across the room she didn’t appear to be nervous at all. I went over and introduced myself and quickly found out that wasn’t the case at all. Her name was Josephina but asked to be called Jo. I took her to the table, provided a chair and told her Jay would be in soon. I went back to my work but couldn’t take my eyes off her. She kept crossing and uncrossing her legs. She was wearing a tight fitting, straight skirt and I tried to position myself in such a way that I might get a glimpse of the “magic triangle” but it didn’t happen. When Jay arrived, about fifteen minutes late, I heard her issue a couple of nervous laughs. Jay only chatted with her for maybe ten minutes, at the most, before he got up and led her out of the office. He was back quickly and walking into the room gave me a thumbs up signal. That was a very good sign for a lot of reasons.

To be continued...