ON AND ON... another month (Part 117e)
The meeting
wasn’t exactly what I expected. It was more of a sales pitch. It opened
with a brief mention of the future of banking but quickly went into a
description of the company who was going to lead everybody there...
Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Instead of describing what banking would
be like the speaker focused on his company and what they did. Reading
between the lines, I was able to figure out that we, the banks, would
eventually no longer be doing the record keeping but that it would be
done by a company such as EDS. The guy did mention that telephone lines
would be used to transmit the data. I felt sort of stupid listening to
him as I had little, if any, knowledge of this whole concept. I felt a
little better after the meeting when I talked with some other bankers
who didn’t know much about it either. Most of the others were, like me,
out of the “mainstream”. It certainly was a forward thinking way of
handling our record keeping and we all wanted to know more about it.
However, the speaker had to make a flight back to Texas so all we were
left with was some promotional material from EDS.
After
the meeting, out in the parking lot, a man I’d seen at the meeting was
looking at a flat tire on his car. I asked if he needed help and he said
he could use a hand. He said the only jack he had was the flimsy thing
that came with the car. I knew I still had the bottle jack that I’d used
with the race car so got it out and started jacking the car up. I also
had a lug wrench which was more practical than the one he had. Within
minutes I had the flat tire off and his spare on. He was very
appreciative and introduced himself as a vice president of one of the
larger banks in the group. He asked what I thought about the meeting and
speaker. I admitted my ignorance on the idea of having a service
company doing the record keeping and he smiled. He told me that he had
to get going but he gave me a business card and told me to call him in
the morning.
It was a short trip home as my mind was
filled with all sorts of ideas on what it would mean to go to an outside
service company. The first was that it would mean we no longer would
have ledger cards and that would definitely lessen the amount of time to
wait on a customer. That would also mean the long lines during our
“busy periods” would be somewhat shorter. However, there had to be some
drawbacks and I had no idea what they would be. I hoped that the guy I’d
helped would give me some perspective as it pertained to our individual
banks when I called. I gave Hobie an update the next morning and gave
him the name of the man who I’d helped and his offer to expand on what
we’d heard. The look on his face was hard to read. I couldn’t tell if he
approved of me talking with him or not so elected to wait.
As
I’ve mentioned, my oldest daughter’s birthday was on Memorial Day
weekend and Elle and I’d agreed to buy her the climbing dome she’d
wanted. I’d ordered it out of the Sears catalog so had to go pick it up.
I ran into Rob, Jon’s (the milkman) brother who asked me about the sign
I’d promised to do for his campaign. I didn’t have an answer but knew I
had to get started on it. I also knew that Elle wanted me to get the
dome built in time for her birthday party the next day. On the trip home
that night I was really stressed. There just were not enough hours in
the day.
The climbing dome was the obvious thing to
attack first. When Jean got up that Saturday morning we gave her the box
to open. Being all metal and with 60+ pieces there was no way she could
even pick it up so all she could do was to peel the wrapping paper off.
We did put the picture of it from the catalog in her birthday card so
she’d know what was in the box. After breakfast I took it outside and
opened it only to find that the manufacturer had failed to insert the
instructions. I got the idea to look at the picture to get the idea of
how it was supposed to go. The next obstacle was the number of machine
screws, nuts and bolts. Initially, I was going to build it where Elle
wanted it placed in the rear yard but after seeing all the screws I
decided the driveway was a better place to start so I wouldn't lose any
of them. Jean and her sister were there to supervise as well. It was
frustrating trying to figure out how the pieces went together. Trial and
error was the only way to go which made it slow going. I took a break
and the girls decided to play in the yard between the house and garage.
When I came back out there was Sophie from next door watching them.
I
knew Celia, her mother, wouldn’t be far behind. As soon as I appeared
my girls headed back to where the dome was. I invited Celia to bring
Sophie out to where I was working and show it to her. They watched for a
while and when Sophie seemed really interested it surprised me. When
Celia suggested that Sophie go home with her she resisted. I didn’t want
a “scene” so told Celia that it would be OK to let her stay and watch.
It was with some reluctance that she finally left. It was a little while
later that Sophie moved closer to the dome and asked if she could help.
That was also a surprise because she usually didn’t say very much of
anything. I told her she could bring me some of the red pieces and I
watched as she squatted down to pick them up. She was, as usual, was
wearing a dress and when she squatted down to get them I got a clear
view of her pantied crotch. It was the hardest thing for me to look at a
fully grown female and to realize that she had the mind of a child. She
took her time picking up some of the red pieces (there were also white
ones) before bringing them over to me. I actually remember wanting to
say something to her about the way she squatted down but didn’t know how
she’d take it... so I said nothing and tried not to look when she went
to get more pieces. Thankfully, Elle called us in for lunch and Sophie,
reluctantly, went home. Whew!
To be continued...
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