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

It was a hectic week with a lot of late night effort. With the new appropriations accounting programs being run I had to be judicious in planning my access to the computer. Jo, with her formal keypunch training, quickly proved to be a more competent operator than Linda. With just a little gnashing of teeth, Jay managed to switch Linda back to the “proof” operator. Jo continued to stay late even though there were only a few instances where actual keypunching was required. She would just stand there watching Jay and I go about our business, asking questions whenever there was a lull. Jay and I really liked her attitude. Always willing to do whatever we asked. It was such a change from her predecessor, Donna, that even Linda made some positive comments about her.

By mid month Jay had worked out the “bugs” in his appropriations accounting program and he and I had a good handle on how to best share the computer. Jo continued to stay late when we did and, on occasion, her presence was a big help. She continued to absorb just what Jay and I were doing and asked intelligent questions without getting in our way. At least in our area (Data Processing) everything was going well. It wasn’t that way in the general Audit and Control area.

Leo, the new Deputy Controller, decided he needed to “make a statement” to become “relevant” (his words). The first week of January he reorganized the work area both physically (desks) and jobs (people). I felt sorry for Irwin. Early on I’d learned from him that the Deputy position was mostly “window dressing” and a “political plum”. He’d been in the department for almost 20 years and was, realistically, the one who oversaw the daily operation. Here was Leo, a mostly absentee figurehead with little to no accounting knowledge or experience, deciding who was to do what. All the women, with the exception of Nina, his mother in law, were upset. Only Nina had anything to do with payroll and, to avoid me, dealt only with the keypunch operators. With bill paying now being done by Data Processing Jay had more interaction with the women in the general work area and he was constantly getting an ear full. He told me all they did was complain.

Back before the end of the year I’d worked with Jay on some of his weekend carpentry jobs. It was cash money and very helpful in paying bills. We had to stop because we had so much to do at work but by mid month Jay felt it was under control and we could get back to it. Before Christmas he’d shown me one fairly large job (two weekends if the weather cooperated) and was anxious to get back to it. Elle didn’t mind me being away while doing this because it was spendable cash that I was earning. It was out on a barrier island and the “fun“ way to get there was to ride on the ocean beach in his 4 wheel drive truck. A couple of storms had washed away one of the two stairways to the house as well as to wash away a few of the posts used to hold up the deck. Jay had purchased the wood for the stairs and we concentrated on that the first weekend. In the course of conversation he told me that the owner was a somewhat famous TV personality, Dave Garroway. This was his Summer home and he was trying to sell it. I recognized the name as the person was one my grandfather liked to watch on morning TV. I remember being anxious to tell him that I’d worked on his home. The weather, even though cold, allowed us to finish the work on the second weekend. An ”extra“ was that Jay was approached by another homeowner to similar work for him. I didn’t particularly like working out there with the wind off the ocean off freezing my butt but cash money certainly warmed my pocket.

If there was a negative to the Garroway job it was that Jay had to wait until the job was finished to get paid. That meant I had to wait as well. But, to lessen the pain of that Jay said he was putting a ”surcharge“ on the bill and I’d be getting $25 for each day. The thought of $100 cash all at one time was certainly a nice ”carrot“. To make it more palatable to Elle, I promised to give her $25 of it to do whatever she wanted with it. That made her smile. The other $75 would pretty much pay for the new TV and antenna.

Having Jo working with us was a joy. Her ”can do“ attitude even made Linda more productive. She continued to come to work dressed ”to kill“ with tight skirts, heels and nice blouses. I certainly enjoyed the occasional VPL’s that I was lucky enough to observe. On rare occasions I even got a peek at the ”magic triangle”. There were hints, at least to me, that there was something “brewing” between Jay and Jo. When we weren’t “under the gun” the three of us would go to lunch together and it was always fun with plenty of laughs.

Other than listening to the grumbling by the women in the general work area, things continued to go well in the DP area. That is until the middle of February, a few days before the monthly Board of Supervisors meeting. Right before we were to leave for the day the Controller came into the room and requested a special report. Jay, knowing how to “play the game“ told him that he could produce it. What he didn’t tell him was that it would’ve been a ”no brainer“ if it had been requested back when he was writing all the programs for the project. To get it done in the time required was going to entail a lot of extra work.

There were two major parts to getting it done. The first was that Jay had to write a completely new program on top of everything else he had to do. The second was that the information needed to produce the report was buried in the stacks of processed punch cards that were lined up in boxes against the south wall of the room. Jo, as expected, volunteered to stay late. The three of us got together and Jay outlined a plan of attack. Jo was assigned the task of identifying which boxes of cards were needed to be pulled. I, to free up the computer, was to get started on the work that was scheduled for the next day. Jay would start writing the program.

To be continued...