INTO THE FUTURE... with hope (Part 94b)

The banquet to recognize the seasons stock car racing champions was usually held in early November. Lightning had struck the hall where it was traditionally held and it was postponed until after Christmas. I’d had no plans to go as I’d only raced a few times and wasn’t in line for any point money or trophies. However, in talking with people like Bags, Ricky and ”Crash“ my racing ”juices“ were flowing and, at the last minute, decided to attend. Elle had no desire, whatsoever, to go so I was on my own. I had a blast meeting new people and talking racing. When I left the banquet hall that night I was all fired up and ready to get started on the new motor. The question was in how to do it without upsetting Elle.

Sometimes help comes from the strangest places. In this case it was Elle’s mother... or I should say a friend of hers. Ellie had been my mother in law’s best friend going back to before she was married. In fact, Elle was named after her. In any case, Ellie had moved to the West coast during WWII. It had been a long time since she’d seen Elle’s mother and it was certainly prior to Elle and I getting married. She wanted to see Elle and the kids. Elle hated to ”perform“, as she called it but knew there was no way out of it. Seeing a chance to get started on the motor I volunteered to drive telling Elle that I would use the time to visit some of my friends. I certainly wasn’t lying but it certainly wasn’t the whole truth.

”Crash“ had decided that I would put the motor together with him advising and watching. This made sense because that way he would have more free time to drink beer. It wasn’t that I had no idea what to do as I’d watched a few motors being built when I had my first race cars. It was the ”details“, as ”Crash“ called them, that made the difference. As usual, I let time get away from me. It wasn’t until Alicia, his daughter, came into the garage to let him know that supper was ready that I realized that I was in trouble. I only wished that she’d come in earlier as she really was a good looking girl. On my way to pick up Elle and the girls I was pleased at how much I’d accomplished in putting the motor together in just four hours. Actually, at that moment in time I didn’t really care how mad Elle was.

I’d mentioned earlier that I’d been working with Jay on a pilot program to score some of the Civil Service exams. It was around the end of January when it was discovered that the women in the office who created the lists that were used for hiring Clerk Typists throughout the County had been screwing them up since the beginning of the year. It was a BIG mess. It had nothing to do with what John and I’d been doing in administering the exams. However, the problem was so large that Mrs K decided to suspend giving new exams until it was straightened out. I casually mentioned it to Jay and he shot back that he (the Data Processing department) could create the lists using the computer. I remember shaking my head and thinking how great that would be. When asked how hard would it be to program he smiled and said he could do it in a weekend.

When I left him that day I knew I had to find a way to present the idea to Mrs K. I rolled and tossed most of that night but by the time I got to work the next morning I had a plan. I knew that she liked me but not to the extent that I could just walk in and have her accept any idea I threw at her. In this case I had to ”sell“ her on the idea. There was no doubt that the problem was a big embarrassment (BTW: her first) to her so that was the wedge I used. The only exposure for error if the lists were created on the computer was from input. Right from my first exposure to DP I was impressed that two people had to enter the same information and if either one was wrong it had to be done again. It took me about an hour before she allowed me to contact Jay to set up a planning meeting.

The timing for this project was perfect even though I was also working on the revision to the Police exam. Not administering the Clerk Typist exam gave me approximately a day and a half ”free time“ to work on it per week. Jay said he’d write the program on his own time (as a favor to me) and that I’d be working with Jo. It was almost like old times. She seemed pleased with the news to be working with me again and I know I was happy to be back working with her. It also gave me a chance to observe the newly hired Data Entry Clerks. Neither was particularly pretty but both were definitely ”in style“ wearing mini skirts. I’m smiling as I write this because I remember Jo telling me to ”stick to business“ when she caught me trying to get a look at them as they worked.

Our new neighbors moved in during a snow storm. To make things worse for them their furnace wasn’t putting out much heat. As I’d mentioned their unit was one of the newest models and had a new type furnace (for mobile homes). Because it was so new the ”boys“ who owned the park hadn’t had the two handy men trained on it. When I got home I found the woman in our living room talking with Elle. Her name was Marge and I remember wondering how young she must’ve been when she had her son who we’d been told was off at college. She didn’t look much older than Elle who was 26 at that time. I remember thinking that I’d definitely be looking at her clothes line. We invited them to stay with us for the night when the husband returned to say that the furnace couldn’t be fixed that night. I was seriously hoping that they would but they thanked us and said ”No". Even though I was disappointed with the decision I was pleased that they had seemed very nice and looked forward to them being neighbors.

To be continued...