ANOTHER NEW YEAR... high hopes (Part 125e)

ANOTHER NEW YEAR... high hopes (Part 125e)

We got another unexpected surprise when Elle found out that she’d be substituting for a third week. The teacher she was in for had some kind of medical procedure done over the holidays but wasn’t healed enough to return to the classroom. The one thing Elle liked when she was called in for just a day or two was that all she had to do was walk in the classroom and pick up the lesson plan book and follow it. For an extended period, like it had been, it meant she had to create the lesson plans. This was the most consecutive days she’d taught where she had to do the lesson plans and it was turning into a bit of a struggle for her. She’d get home, play with the kids for a bit and then fix supper. After we’d finish eating I’d get ”play duty“ with the kids while she cleaned up and prepared lunches for the kids for the next day. Then she’d tackle writing the lesson plans for the upcoming days. I was almost a forgotten man. I’d made the mistake of asking when she was going to work on the ”dribble panties“ for Sandy. It wasn’t a friendly answer so I backed off.

It was a very cold January and everybody was complaining about it, especially the younger women. With the shorter skirts (and coats to go with them) it was no wonder they were cold. I knew something was ”up“ when I saw Lorrie come up to Trish and Cara and get into a deep, whispered conversation. They were the core of the "Polish Mafia" and it had been a while since I’d heard from them. As soon as the doors were closed and locked to the public Trish was at my desk. Never one to ”pull punches“, she came right out and asked if the women could wear pants suits. Like so many things having to do with fashion, it had started in the city and slowly made it out to our rural area. I’d seen some of  them on mannequins in store windows during the Christmas shopping season but hadn’t thought much about it. Now I had to. Since it wasn’t up to me to decide I told her I’d bring the suggestion forward. There wasn’t a formal dress code although there had been some discussion about it when skirts started getting shorter (and shorter). In thinking about the request I respected the fact that they had asked about them rather than to have just showed up wearing them. I assured Trish that I wouldn’t let it die. I know she had a smart ass comment for me (but with a smile) but I don’t remember what it was.

It was nearing the end of the month when I got a call from my father. He was still into weather forecasting and asked if I’d seen the forecast on the nightly news. We only got two TV channels and both were from Connecticut so even when I did watch I pretty much ignored it. I listened to a city based radio station in the car and as we spoke I remembered hearing that the city was expected to get a ”dusting“ of snow over the night. I mentioned it and he told me to forget I’d heard it and to be prepared for a ”doozy“. He said that the Connecticut TV stations were predicting a ”measurable“ amount but wouldn’t give it in inches. He’d found, over time, a Connecticut radio station that would include our area in their weather coverage and had been right more times than not... and they were saying we could get a foot or more. That was definitely ”measurable“.

Realistically, there wasn’t much I could do to prepare so it was a normal night. It wasn’t snowing when we went to bed. I fully expected to see the ground white when I got up but there was nothing. The local radio station was saying there was a chance of snow and that was it. The first flakes I saw started just before I pulled into the bank parking lot... and then they came... and came... and came. By 11am Hank had shoveled the snow off the sidewalk twice and he just couldn’t keep up with it. Looking down Main Street from the second floor mezzanine area it was quite a sight. The streets had yet to be plowed and the ruts left by the cars made it almost impossible for pedestrians, as few as they were, to cross the street. Lobby traffic dropped off to almost nothing right after the doors opened and with the snow piling up I was getting concerned for the safety of the people who had a distance to go to get back home. I went to Hobie to see if we could close early. I still wasn’t familiar with all the State banking rules and found out that we’d have to get the State banking department’s permission. He also told me that it didn’t happen all that often and hadn’t happened since he’d been hired. I knew there were around a dozen employees who lived ten or more miles away and I was truly concerned for them. Main Street was a State highway and it was a mess. I could only imagine what some of the back roads were like.

Not willing to give up, I turned back to Hobie and asked if it would be OK to put together a ”skeleton“ crew to meet banking regulations. The idea behind the rule was to guarantee customers access to their money during published banking hours. To meet that requirement it seemed to me that all that was needed was one teller and two officers to sign the checks that were in amounts over $1000. I was willing to stay and  pretty much knew Bret would stay since he only lived about ten minutes away (walking). Cara, a teller, was also a ”townie“ and also walked to and from work and I felt she'd be willing to stay as well. Hobie thought about it for a few seconds and told me that if I could find someone to answer the phone until 3pm it was a ”Go“. Netta, the new switchboard operator, was also a "local" but lived up by the high school, a pretty fair hike. I got Bret’s attention and was running my plan past him when J J showed up wanting to know when his staff could go home. If there was one consistent trait that J J had was to open his mouth at just the wrong time. He had a ”booming“ voice and when he asked he seemed to make a point of making it louder. I wanted to hit him up along side his head. But... seeing him reminded me that Lynne, his secretary, had, at one time, been a relief switchboard operator. She lived just down the street near the Methodist church. Upset with his boorish ways I told him an early exit would only happen if he could persuade Lynne to stay and run the switchboard until 3pm. The look on his face told me that my request had caught him by surprise. He thought I was kidding... but I wasn't. He said that it wasn't fair but I told him that was the "deal", take it or leave it. Without saying another word he turned and headed back upstairs. A few minutes later my phone rang and it was J J... "Deal" was all I heard.

To be continued...