SUMMER... August, at work (Part 88c)

The third week started with Sonny, Vi and I setting up for the Exam at the County Center. The difference was that Sonny was there only as an observer. Vi was now in charge and I was the assistant. I wasn’t nervous but anxious would have been a fair observation. I set the desk up as Sonny had shown me and when I was finished he gave me a thumbs up. Vi was the nervous one because she had to make all the announcements and give the instructions. She had told me that in spite of numerous high profile jobs on her resume she’d never had to speak to more than about a dozen people and she was familiar with all of them.

As soon as I could I took a seat at the front table. The one thing that I wished was that I could have controlled who sat where. Unfortunately for me (and Sonny), the there were two really attractive women with short skirts but they had arrived a bit late and were buried in the back. Sitting next to Vi I had to be careful with my leaning over the edge of the table to get my peeks in. The desks were spaced so that you could see the legs of the women in the second row. When an applicant finished the exam one of us would go collect it. Vi had gotten up to collect the first of them I took advantage of the opportunity. One of the women in the second row had hooked one of her feet on the shelf under the desk and had spread her other leg to the side. There was enough light for me to see not just a little triangle but I got a full view of her crotch. If she’d glanced up she would’ve known exactly what I was doing. I was liking the job a lot more.

The way they had set up the typing portion of the test the women faced a wall and all I (we) could see was the backs of the women. I noted that some of them used the legs of the typing table to rest their knees against. I decided that it would be nice to have been on the other side, for sure. Something for future consideration.

The rest of the week went by fairly smoothly. I’d looked into the DP department window while walking by on my way to the cafeteria one day and saw a short, fairly old colored man (remember, it’s 1963) shuffling around in front of the sorter. I made a point of trying to find anyone from the department to ask if he was my replacement. Later that day I saw Lucy walking down the hall so I ran down to catch up with her. It was and she said he was very nice but very slow. I do remember telling her “Good luck!” as I returned to my department.

We all knew Robby was leaving at the end of the month to go to graduate school so Mrs K asked her assistant to arrange for a going away party for him. The idea was to make it a surprise party. He took a day off that Friday and that’s when the planning started in earnest. We were all in a good mood until Mrs K came out of her office and called us all together. We thought it was about the party but it was to tell us that we wouldn’t be getting our paychecks until Monday. What a shock! It took a few seconds before anyone could speak. Sonny was the one to ask how that could be. Mrs K, for one of the few times I hadn’t seen a smile on her face, said that there had been a problem in processing the payroll for all the regular County employees. She said that the Controller said that every effort would be made to see we got our checks on Monday, before lunch.

I knew that wouldn’t do me much good as I’d be at the testing site 25 or so miles to the West and wouldn’t be back until probably well after 5pm. After the personal upset had somewhat subsided I started wondering what could possibly have gone wrong. I, along with both Jo and Lucy, had written a detailed procedural manual. If it was followed, step by step, there was no way for anything other than an equipment failure to go wrong. Even with that I knew Jay had an arrangement (personal) with the Remington Rand technician to come on site at any time he was called. It just floored me.

Vi and I were getting our supplies for Monday’s test together when we got the news. We still had to finish up and as we did Vi made mention that the lack of a paycheck didn’t really matter to her as her husband was the “breadwinner”. That sort of bothered me and I let her know about it. I liked the woman but it was insensitive for her to have made such a statement. I pretty much knew that Elle and I could wait through the weekend because it was the middle of the month and there were no bills that had to be paid immediately. We’d had to change our eating habits from time to time so I knew we could do it again. Because Vi was the one who did the audit of Data Processing department and I was working there at the time she asked what I thought had been the cause. I didn’t have a clue and knew well enough not to go near the place that afternoon.

I was on my way home when the connection of the failed payroll and the new man was made in my mind. From that point forward I wanted to know what had happened in the worst way. If it was as bad as it could possibly be I knew that Jay, Jo, Andre and probably Lucy were still at work. As I’ve written a number of times in the past, when Jay was upset he didn’t want to talk with anybody so I knew that was out of the question. I also knew that if I called into the office from home Jay would ask who it was that called and I certainly didn’t want him mad at me. I needed him as a friend and didn’t want to do anything to hurt that relationship. The only name I could come up with was Rena.

To be continued...