HEADED FOR SPRING... more changes (Part 79b)

These changes were somewhat mild in comparison to what was about to happen in the trailer (Ooops... mobile home) park. Even though I’d been told of the upcoming changes that Dick and Ben were planning I was not prepared for the breadth and scope of them. I don’t have any memory of the specific date but it was in early March. When I got home from work Elle asked what the big meeting was about that had been called for that night at the meeting hall. She’d been asked by a few people she’d seen while picking up our mail. We hadn’t been invited so I had no idea. I called Jim and Andy they didn’t know anything either.

We were just about to go to bed when the phone rang. It was one of our original neighbors asking for more information about what had taken place at the meeting. They hadn’t gone but had heard a rumor that all the “Golden Agers” (those over 59) were going to be kicked out of the park. Common sense told me that wasn’t going to happen but I did remember what Dick had told me about building a new facility that would be limited to those over 50 years old. I tried to assure him that he and his wife would not be “kicked out” and also promised to find out just what was going on. It bothered me that he and his wife were that concerned so, in spite of the hour (probably after 11pm) I called Dick.

I sat and listened for about 15 to 20 minutes as he explained what he and his brother had explained earlier. It was an “eye opener“, for sure. The ”boys“ had held what Dick called a ”pre announcement“ about their plans for the new facility. They had renderings of what the new place would look like and explained that all the ”pads“ would be bigger than in the existing park and all would have off street parking. An added amenity was that there would be trees on all the pads. Where the confusion came in with my former neighbor was that the ”golden agers“ were offered a chance to move to the new facility with the current rent guaranteed for a year plus the ”boys“ would move their units for free. It was enough to arm me with with facts to ward off the rumors that were sure to abound the next day. I think what really surprised me was that they were going to try to get phase one of the new park done by July 1. I remember thinking that was pretty ambitious. After explaining it all to Elle I remember wondering if they were going to go ahead with the travel trailer part that I’d agreed to work on for them.

Not long after that I got to meet the ”mystery woman“ who lived across the street from us. It was on a Sunday and Elle, I and the kids had just gotten back from church when I saw her headed our way. She introduced herself as Denise. She handed us a flyer announcing the grand opening of the new discount store up on the by-pass. Elle took a look at that while I took a look at her. I remember asking her what her hours of work were as I hardly ever saw her car when I left for work or when I returned home. She laughed and said she wouldn’t have set hours until the store was up and running. As she was talking I was taking a good look at her. I’d noticed her at the Christmas party at the meeting hall and thought she was good looking at the time. But up close and in casual clothes she wasn’t as interesting. However, she was in her thirties and had what looked to be a nice body. When she left us I knew I’d continue looking at her wash line especially after the store was up and running.

The flier that Denise had given Elle had some real bargains. The store was going to carry just about everything. Looking back on it now, it was a forerunner of the WalMart type store. The opening was scheduled for the first of April, a few weeks before Easter. I remember Elle writing down a whole bunch of stuff on our ”want“ list.
On that Monday all the women in the park were talking about the new store and the fabulous prices. Denise had handed out fliers to all the residents and it seemed like she got the desired result.

As far as work... without Linda we were able to get by but Jo had to step back to her keypunching duties, at least part time. Jay had gotten a lead on a woman who was interested but was only interested in working for a few months. Of course he had to get the ”OK“ from Leo and he sat on the request for quite a while which just added to the dislike we all felt for him. The woman was a forty something who, in her youth, had probably been very cute. Her name escapes me but she fit right in, probably because Jay wasn’t that choosy knowing that she’d only be there for a few months. By the time she started we had adapted to the new tape drive and other than an occasional ”crunch“ things were going well.

As I’d mentioned in earlier posts it was very difficult to do much of anything on the race car being that it was stored outside. With my agreeing to help the ”boys“ with the creation of the new travel trailer section I was given access to all their work areas much like when I was working full time for them. I got permission to create a lean-to against one of the storage areas and Eric and I got it done in one afternoon. It didn’t have heat but it did protect us from the elements, especially the wind. It was a very big change and got me really excited about the upcoming racing season.

To be continued...