A BIG STEP... wise or not (Part 113g)

A BIG STEP... wise or not (Part 113g)

On Saturday morning I went outside to bring in the milk (... remember, this was in the 60’s and milk came in bottles and was delivered right to your house) and found a note from the milkman. There was a telephone number, a name and the word “steamer” written on it. I called the number and found it was the brother in law of Ginger, the lady who Elle and I had just met. Rob had been a painter/decorator for a number of years but had changed careers. He still had some equipment as he still moonlighted a bit but told me he’d be glad to loan me the steamer. When I told him I didn’t have any idea of what to do he volunteered to come over and give me a lesson. It was way more than I expected.

He showed up after lunch with a small dark haired girl with him. Once inside the house, Anne, my middle daughter, recognized her immediately as one of her classmates. The two of them took off to play freeing Rob to teach me what to do. When he was finished the daughter asked if she could stay. Later on, the mother came to pick her up. Lisa was a tiny, dark haired woman and the resemblance between mother and daughter was clearly evident. However, Lisa had dark, firery eyes and seemed to be a bundle of nerves. I liked Rob right from the beginning but I had some concerns about Lisa. I ended up spending the rest of the day steaming the living room wall paper off. It was amazing how much brighter and bigger the room seemed without it. I’d gotten paid on Friday and the first mortgage payment was due on Wednesday. It was hard to fathom that almost the whole thing was needed to make that payment. I’d been resisting the use of the Sears charge card but with the living room now ready for paint and the two of us so anxious to finish the job off I just had to break it out.

I was already apprehensive about the upcoming week at work. I’d pretty much decided on moving Mala and hiring a replacement teller instead of someone for Willa. I was concerned with the fact that my first attempts to interview applicants hadn’t gone all that well and just hoped that it would go better this week. It didn’t. I was only able to arrange a couple of actual interviews for Monday but the results were the same as the previous week... although the women didn’t come right out and laugh at the pay. I remember one telling me that it was less than she was presently making as a store clerk and at the store she got a discount on merchandise.

After the doors closed I turned to Hobie to express my concern. I asked if I could do a quick salary survey of the local banks as far as the entry level was concerned. He was a bit reluctant but then I told him the results of the want ad. After that he said he’d make a few calls to the people he knew. While he was doing that I decided to call the first bank I’d worked at and talk to Artie, the mortgage officer. I really had no idea what people there were making but he volunteered that as of the first of January they had raised the starting pay to $62.50 a week. To be truthful, I was surprised.

Hobie was on the phone for quite a while. When he finished up he came over to me and showed what three of the four banks were paying and they were all $60. I told him of my call but all he’d say was that $60 “seemed adequate”. I tried to emphasize the fact that Willa, with three years experience, was leaving to make more money in a beginning level position with the County. He pretty much dismissed me at that point. I was upset (and probably showed it).

The next day, a Wednesday, was the regular meeting day of the Board of Trustees mortgage committee. Hobie, the corporate Secretary, always attended to take the minutes. I didn’t think anything of it and was still “stewing” about having to try and hire someone at a less than competitive salary. I did have one woman who had said she was interested and if I hadn’t had one more interview schedule for Thursday would’ve hired her. I’d bought the paint for the living room on Monday and by Wednesday, all I had to do was to cut in the edges around the windows and trim. I left as soon as I could to get home and finish the job so I wasn’t there when Hobie returned from the meeting.

He was waiting for me the next morning. He handed me slip of paper and I saw $60 printed on it. He told me that it still had to be approved by the whole Board at their monthly meeting the following Wednesday but that I could offer it to the persons I was interviewing. I guess it should’ve made me happy but it didn’t. The reason was that it meant that whoever I hired would be making more than the last two people hired and, based upon what Willa had indicated to me, probably some of the people who’d been there more than a year. When I tried to protest to Hobie he basically told me to be happy with what it was. I wasn’t.

As it turned out, I ended up hiring the person who I interviewed that day. Jerena was a bit different. (In the not too distant future I’ll be devoting a whole post just about her.) She was fairly short, maybe 5’3“, and nicely proportioned. She definitely was ”cute“ with a never ending smile. Actually, she was a flirt. She’d graduated from school in June but had, in her words, been ”forced“ to work in the family business which was upholstering. She told me that she’d made up her mind that she was going to defy her parents and go out on her own as of January 1st. Since then she’d been living with a cousin. Her telling of that was a definite ”plus“ in my evaluation of her. Although young, her dress was stylish and yet in good taste. I was also very impressed with how well spoken she was as a teenager. Like so many in the area, her parents were Polish. She said she’d resisted speaking it but could, if necessary, and definitely understood it. That was another ”plus“ as I’d found that I needed someone who did on the teller line on Friday nights when we were at half staff. My final question was to ask when she could start. She looked right at me, blinked her eyelashes a couple of times and with an even bigger smile than she’d worn throughout the interview said, ”Right now“.

To be continued...