MORE GOOD TIMES... August (Part 120i)

MORE GOOD TIMES... August (Part 120i)

Sunday was the last day of my vacation and I decided that we’d take the Sunfish to the sailing club. It was much easier to launch from there than at my parents. When Elle had taken Jo there she’d observed a number of kids that looked to be about the same age as our older two girls taking sailing lessons. Elle and I’d talked about that a number of times. Even though I was perfectly capable of teaching them, lessons at the club would have them with kids their own age and, based upon my own experience, it was a lot more fun that way than when my father was the teacher. We thought we could talk with some of the current members about the program while we were there. When we told the girls they were excited about it with Anne begging me to let her steer.

It was a perfect day in just about every way. There wasn’t too much wind and everybody got some time in the boat, including Kay. We got to talk with a couple of parents who had kids in the program and they said it was a good one. A teacher from the high school was the supervisor and was hands on... a big improvement from back when I was active in the club. Jean would be eight the next year which was the same age as I was when I started. Anne would be turning seven and possibly a little young but she had shown such a love of sailing that I felt she’d fit in. At least we’d started the process.

Going back to work was a bit difficult after having ”freedom“ for a week. Trying to get caught up I didn’t leave the building until after the cleaning people had done their job. Thank goodness there hadn’t been a ”catastrophe“ while I was gone. August was known to be the slowest month for lobby traffic and from what I was told the week had been really, really slow. The only ”news“ was that Cassie was engaged and one of the women in the mortgage department had resigned. She was pregnant and had been having difficulties. Her doctor strongly suggested that she stop work ”just to be sure“. Ironically, an applicant had come in with mortgage experience, the week before I went on vacation. It only took a phone call to get her in and then J J hired her right away. We already had two women working on the second floor with the same name but she bailed J J out by telling him she was OK with being called Ali, which was a shortening of her middle name. Nothing special to look at, she did have a nice ”form“ and I knew that had been a part of J J’s decision making.

It was one day that week when Pat dropped off the dress that Elle was to alter. She had told Elle that the woman who would be wearing the dress would call to set up a fitting. When I got home Elle was a excited and showed me a satin burgundy dress. She wanted to try it on in the worst way because she’d never been a bridesmaid due to all the traveling we had to do when I trained horses. I told her to go ahead even though the dress was a size larger than she would have worn. I have to admit that she looked good in it.

By going to the sailing club on Sunday I’d awakened a sleeping desire. I’d witnessed  about nine Sunfish racing and it looked and sounded like the racers had fun. I knew a few of them and they, seeing my Sunfish, tried to cajole me into participating. It was hard to say ”No.“ but I did. I think it was that next week that I got a call from Rex, the man who’d sold me the boat, telling me that he was putting together an ”old timers“ race for the last weekend of racing. He was trying to get as many of the former Comet Class sailors together as he could to race Sunfish. He’d gotten permission from most of the current Sunfish sailors to use their boats and was hoping I’d join in. I told him I’d let him know.

Another phone call I got that week was from my old friend from boarding school, Fred. It had been three years since Elle and I had seen him and his wife, Liz. He now had two kids, a girl Anne’s age and a boy around Kaye’s age. They’d been out in Ohio for around five years and had grown disenchanted with the area so he quit his job and returned to the East coast. They were living with his in-laws while he decided what he was going to do next. He wanted for us to get together and was planning on spending the up coming weekend at his in-laws Summer home which wasn’t too far away. I’ve written about it in earlier posts. It was, and still is, one of the most interesting locations I’d ever seen with water views from three sides of the house. The only problem was that it was located on a bluff and there were fifty to sixty steps down to the water’s edge.

For us, it meant changing some of our plans but Elle wanted to see their kids and to show off ours. We told them we’d arrive about noon on Saturday. Elle and I decided not to bring bathing suits because we didn’t want the kids navigating all those stairs. Knowing that Liz was a bit on the prudish side, Elle chose to wear bermudas rather than short shorts. Because we’d be at their house Elle didn’t wear even a partial package. It took about 25 minutes to get there and Liz had a lunch waiting for us. As expected, the kids were shy during introductions but food soon broke down that barrier.

Fred looked about the same except for a receding hairline. Liz was as thin as I remembered her and, with her clothes seeming to hang on her and hollow cheeks, she looked quite a bit older. Her personality was still the same though... bubbly. After eating the kids wanted to go swimming. Elle expressed her concerns with the stairs so Liz suggested they go to the public beach known as the causeway. When Elle mentioned that our kids didn’t have their bathing suits Liz shocked me when she said they could swim in their underwear and, so our kids wouldn’t be uncomfortable, she let her kids do the same. I remember shaking my head (mentally) wondering how Fred had gotten her to loosen up a bit.

The women took the kids and left Fred and I to get caught up. He told me that his father-in-law was offering him a loan to start a business and he was in the process of doing research. Initially, he’d identified the field of food provisions. There were a couple of regional housing areas that were growing rapidly and he felt he’d be able to take advantage that. He figured it would take a few months to get it all put together. In the mean time they’d be living with the in-laws. I’d been to their house and it was certainly big enough to house them. He mentioned his sister-in law was also living there. As soon as he mentioned her I smiled. I remembered her as being a ”free spirit“ and some ”interesting“ experiences when we were all together. I’ve mentioned that my brother and I were exact opposites but Liz and her sister were even more.

When the women returned I could see that Elle’s shorts were wet. I started to ask and she signaled for me to shut my mouth. At the beach, in the course of conversation, Elle mentioned her new love of tennis. Liz mentioned her sister was a the business manager of a new tennis academy just a few miles from her home. Elle couldn’t wait to tell me about that and as she did, Liz invited us to come in to spend a day with them and to go see the facility. Fred seconded the idea and I said we’d work on it.

To be continued...