THE NEXT PHASE... new job (Part 105h)

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To make some of the upcoming posts more understandable I feel it’s necessary to post some background on the banking system at that period in time, so...

Basically, there were two types of banking institutions... thrift and commercial. Thrifts (savings banks, savings and loan associations and credit unions) paid interest on their deposits (but did not offer checking accounts) and made mortgage loans on residential homes. Deposits and withdrawals (and interest) were posted into what was called a passbook that the depositor maintained. Commercial banks offered checking accounts (but didn’t pay interest on the deposits) and made all types of other type loans (ie: construction, inventory, personal, auto, etc). The interest that the thrifts paid was paid at the end of each calendar quarter. If a depositor needed to make a withdrawal of funds during a quarter they lost the accrued interest on the amount withdrawn. Sometime prior to the time I’m writing about the State banking department decided to allow interest to be posted and made available three business days prior to the actual end of a quarter. So, that meant that on the first day interest was posted there would be a log jam of depositors who had postponed making withdrawals... as well as a whole cadre of depositors who just had to get their interest posted into their passbook even though they didn’t want to make a withdrawal.

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Over the weekend I couldn’t wait for the upcoming week. I wanted to see just how the changes would work out and to find out if Hobie would act on the suggestions I made for the drive up. Included in my suggestions was to advertise the fact that we actually had a drive up window and that it would be open during the same hours as the bank. I’d discovered a cache of left over ”give aways“ in the basement that were from the open house that had been held to celebrate the remodeling of the bank about a year earlier. I thought that the bank could advertise a free ”gift“ with every visit to the window as an added inducement to use it. One of the reasons I wanted to ”push it” was to ease some of the expected lobby traffic once the interest was posted and available to the depositors. Twice I’d witnessed the added lobby traffic at my previous bank so had an idea what was ahead. In talking with Hobie I’d gotten the distinct impression that we would be very, very busy and in my mind the use of the drive up would be helpful in alleviating some of the pressure.

I didn’t have to wait long on Monday to find out. As soon as I walked in Hobie steered me into the elevator and we ended up in the president’s office. Hobie presented my suggestions, along with a few modifications, to him and, much to my surprise we were told to implement it immediately. The local newspaper was published on Thursdays which meant we had time to get something created and ready for printing. Hobie proceeded to call the advertising agency that they sometimes used and set up an appointment. What I didn’t expect was that I was to be the one to meet with them.

The ad firm was a family run affair. A father, son and granddaughter made up the whole office. When I walked in the first thing I saw was a very nicely shaped female bottom. The lady was bending at the waist over an open file cabinet drawer. Her skirt was short but not enough for me to see anything but legs. I stood there, staring, for a few seconds before she realized there was someone in the office. When she turned towards me I saw a pretty young woman who was obviously embarrassed. I probably blushed as well. Her name was Andrea and when I told her mine she led me into an office where she introduced me to her father, Art. I explained what we (the bank) wanted to accomplish. I was only there for a matter of minutes when he said he’d have a ”rough“ of the ad over to me by noon. I remember thinking how easy that had been as I walked back to the bank.

Upon my return Hobie wanted to go over the actual operation of the window concerned about staffing it during Corrine’s lunch break. I remember trying not to be smug when I responded. In the two weeks I’d been there I’d yet to find out just what Katy’s duties actually were. If you’ve ever seen a drop of mercury you know that you can’t put your finger on it (not that you’d want to) just by it’s nature. That was Katy. She had a way of wiggling out of any meaningful answers when asked just what her job was. I told him that I’d decided to use her to fill in for that hour. Because I didn’t expect a big rush of customers I figured that she could accept transactions and then walk them over to a regular teller for processing. I could see Hobie had some doubts but he didn’t torpedo the idea.

Andrea walked in just as the noon signal went off at the fire house. I was pleased to see her as she really was an attractive girl/woman. The ad itself was pretty vanilla and after Hobie made a few suggestions she was given the OK to place it. It wasn’t until she’d left that Hobie asked about the copy for the radio ad. Talk about embarrassment!. I’m sure my face went beet red. I'd completely overlooked it. I have no idea what I said to him but I was quickly on my way back to the agency. I actually followed Andrea through the door. Her father was on the phone so I just stood and waited outside his office door. Standing there I was in position to see Andrea sitting at her desk. There was a phone on a counter directly behind her and as it rang she just spun her chair around to answer it. For a split second I saw the ”magic triangle” as she had to split her legs to propel herself around to get to the phone. I stood there staring at her and hoping that I’d get a repeat performance after she hung the receiver up. It was better than that. Whatever the call was about caused her to retrieve something from the the end of the counter and, again, she propelled her chair over to it. Totally involved in the call she ignored me and as she sat there flipping through the material I got a very nice peek. I’m sure she was never aware of my sighting. It took only a few minutes to tell Art about the radio ad and I was on my way back. As I did I remember thinking that I hoped I'd get to be involved in future advertising projects.

To be continued...