GOOD TIMES... Spring (Part 69a)

March ended on a good note. Elle taught about 8 days for the month and with the playhouses Jay and I had built there was actually money in the bank that we didn’t owe. Lance had approached me on another one of his car deals so there was even more money to come. The end of March also meant the end of the calendar quarter which required extra reports meaning we’d be working late for a while. In spite of that the arrival of April brought some exciting things to the forefront.

For Jay it was the ability to hire another employee to help us all out. His plan to move Jo up a bit wasn’t going to happen, at least officially. The Civil Service Commission still hadn’t written job descriptions for the Data Processing department other than for Key Punch Operator. The only thing Jay was allowed to do was to hire another key puncher. Jo would still be classified and paid as a key puncher but would actually be doing the work of a DP Machine Operator. Surprisingly, when Jay told her about the "glitch" she didn’t complain. All Jay had to do was to interview women from the approved list. The problem was squeezing in the interviews on top of everything else that was going on.

On a personal level my 25th birthday was on Thursday that week. My grandfather insisted that it be celebrated at his house because he had a surprise for me. Of course hearing that that made time go by fairly slowly for me. I’m not sure which day it was that week I went to the bank during my lunch break. While there I ran into my cousin’s husband, Brian. For reasons that I still have yet to fathom the extended family on my father’s side was never really that close. I don’t ever remember having everyone together at one time. In any case, I was closer to my cousin Joan’s husband than I was to her. Brian was “blue collar”, through and through and a good guy. Joan was a college graduate and I always felt that she had a chip on her shoulder. I had the feeling she looked down on me as being somewhat inferior. In any case, Brian and I chatted in the lobby and once outside I saw he was driving Joan’s ‘55 Chevy Bel Air. I’d always loved that car. It was all black with red/orange and cream leather seats. I mentioned it to Brian as we parted and he mentioned that “they” were going to sell it. The “they” was the family farm and not Joan and Brian. I was a bit puzzled and he told me that when he and Joan had gotten married her parents gave them a new car and this car became a “lot” car. (A “lot“ car is one that is used on a farm to go from one area of the farm fields to another) Hearing the word ”sell“ really got my attention. I liked the ‘55 Chevy that I had but it wasn’t the Bel Air model and Joan’s black car was. All black and with the leather seats it was sharp looking. I asked Brian if he any idea what they were asking for it and he shrugged his shoulders saying it wouldn’t be much as there was rust over the headlights and needed tires, shocks and motor work. He told me to make an offer and he’d get back to me. Taking what he’d just told me into consideration I said I’d go $100. He waved good bye and said he’d call. I knew it wasn’t a smart move but the car, cleaned up, really was worth a lot more than $100. I decided not to say anything to anybody until I heard from Brian.

Thursday finally came and I really had no idea what the ”surprise’ for me was. My parents were there and after we ate my grandfather turned to me and told me how proud of me he was and that I was worthy of the envelope he handed me. It was a rather thick envelope and he told me to open it. There were a number of pages and on first blush they made no sense to me. I guess my puzzled look led to my grandfather explaining that he’d set up a trust fund for me when I was born. Now that I was 25 years old and had a family he felt it was time that I learned about it. It didn’t mean that much to me since I had no idea what a trust fund was. It finally started to “click” when he told me that I would be able to have access to the money it earned. As it turned out it was about $100 a month. I really don’t think I gave him enough thanks for it though as I hadn’t grasped the whole concept.

Brian got in touch with me over the weekend and the $100 offer was accepted. Ironically, there was a little over $100 immediately available from the trust so it wasn’t going to affect the amount in the checking account. When I told Elle she didn’t understand why I wanted another car even after I told her I could sell the blue '55 Chevy, fix up the black one and have money left over. The mind of a female has always puzzled me.

I told Jay about the car and he suggested that I switch motors since mine was somewhat "souped up". He agreed to help and since he had a block and fall set up at his place it made sense to go there even though it was some 25 miles away. After I took ownership of the black Chevy we decided to do it the weekend before Easter. Jay figured that if all went well we could do it in two days. Always up for a challenge when it came to working on cars, Jay was perfect for the job.

To be continued...