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

Elle had watched TV that afternoon to try and get an idea of how bad the storm was. She told me that there was considerable coastal erosion and a lot of homes had been destroyed from Delaware all the way to Cape Cod. Since the only two channels we got clearly were from another state she didn’t have any news as to how bad our local area got hit. Without electricity we’d not had hot water so I hadn’t taken a shower for two days. I decided I would after supper, hoping that Jo’s clothes might still be hanging in the tub. They were and, other than her wool coat, were dry. I made sure Elle was occupied with the kids when I shut the door. As I pulled back the shower curtain I could feel the start of a bulge. I quickly found what I was looking for but was somewhat disappointed. Her panties were plain nylon with no embellishments or label. They did have a nice satiny feel, much like the Plymouth panties I'd bought for Elle. I rationalized to myself that not everybody wore fancy panties. As I took my shower I started wondering again just what panties Elle had given her to wear. I had to wait until Monday to find out.

The weather was much better as we got up on Friday. Anxious to find out how much damage had occurred in our area I stopped to buy a newspaper on my way to work. The picture right on the front showed where the ocean had broken through the dunes to create a new inlet. I read the caption and was in total shock after I did. It said that the opening was right where Dave Garroway’s house had been. That was where Jay and I had been working only a few weeks earlier. The caption went on to say that five houses had been washed away in that spot alone meaning that the house where Jay and I were to replace the stairs was gone as well. I remember standing there just staring at the picture.

When Jay arrived at work I showed him the picture and the caption. He was as shocked as I was. He went on and looked at more of the pictures and read the stories. When he was finished I could see a look of disappointment on his face. But, as I’d learned earlier, when Jay got this way it was best to wait for him to speak. I delivered the checks to the Treasurer’s office and went about doing my follow up reports without hearing a word from Jay. It was early afternoon before he came up to me and said something along the lines of “I guess we’re only in the playhouse business now.” I didn’t understand especially since we’d just agreed to split time between doing the carpentry work on the barrier island and building playhouses. With a look of disgust on his face he picked up the newspaper and pointed to the picture, shaking his head. He explained that, basically, all his work out there was made up of little “nuisance” jobs that most builders wanted no part of. He'd gotten the jobs by word of mouth from people with whom he’d previously done work for. Now, the damage was so great that he knew he couldn’t handle it and the homeowners would be using large contractors. He was really down when we left that night.

My plan for the weekend was to clean up the debris caused by the storm. Rex, my sailing club friend who also lived locally during the Winter, had called to tell me that the sailing club had survived but had a lot of damage. All three stairways to the porch had been washed away. I wanted to go see it but I spent most of Saturday at my grandfather’s house. On Sunday we went to our parent’s houses and helped clean up there as well. On the way home we stopped to take a look at the sailing club. I wished that I hadn't. It was going to take a lot of volunteer work to get it ready for the upcoming season.

The Saturday and Sunday newspapers had many more pictures of the coastal damage. The barrier island was closed to the public including people who owned the damaged or destroyed houses and was being patrolled by the National Guard. President Kennedy had declared all the coastal areas from Maryland through Massachusetts a disaster area. The enormity of the storm was finally taking hold. Elle and I were lucky as there was no damage to our trailer or property at all. For the residents of the trailer park the damage was mostly to TV antennas. The tree that had fallen on the display trailer was the only real damage and totaled it. All in all we were pretty lucky.

Thankfully, work went fairly smoothly the following week. Jo returned Elle’s clothes, all washed and folded, on Monday. I chose to go home for lunch just so I could peek in the bag to see which panties Elle had loaned her. I was a bit shocked in that they were a pair of the fancy panties that I’d bought Elle quite a while back. I wondered why but thought better about asking her. It was interesting though.

The local shorefront damage continued to hold everyone’s interest. Jay, with his four wheel drive truck, was frustrated that he couldn’t get access to the beaches because they had been declared a disaster area. Andy, my friend from the trailer park, had been working as a heavy equipment operator for the local township and since the end of the storm he’d been assigned to working 12 hour days pushing sand up against the eroded dunes to, hopefully, protect them from further damage. After listening to him describe some of the damage to a few of the mansions East of us I asked him if there was any way I could get to see them. I’d told him about Jay and his truck and he told me that he had an idea that might work to get us access.

To be continued...