MORE... surprises and changes (Part 138l)

MORE... surprises and changes (Part 138l)

After a contentious day that followed the contentious evening from the previous day (the vestry meeting), I was looking for a peaceful evening at home and hoping to find Elle in a ‘receptive’ mood. However, what I found when I arrived was a couple of very upset kids as well as Elle. I sort of mentioned in a previous post that the two older girls had been ‘at each other’ over meaningless things more and more. They'd both been warned to stop or there would be consequences. The ‘hammer’ had fallen when Elle decided to separate them by giving each their own room. They'd shared the same room right from the time that Anne was out of her crib. When we bought the house they’d been offered the chance for each to have their own room but both had turned it down. Now it was no longer their choice as Elle had moved Anne into what we’d called the ‘guest’ room. All that was in it was a bed and upright dresser that had been left by the previous owner and Anne was mad about that. Jean was complaining, loudly, to Elle that the move wasn’t fair and that she’d behave. Elle wasn’t listening. So... needless to say it was obvious to say that I wasn’t going to have the evening that I’d hoped for.

And, if that wasn’t enough, Elle had come back from running some errands in the morning only to find the clothes line completely filled with the neighbors clothes. Hearing that was what made me mad. The woman (Phyllis) was just unbelievable. I told Elle I was going next door and have it out with her but she grabbed me and pleaded with me not to go. Again, she was concerned that if anything was said it would make it difficult for her to get substitute teaching jobs at the school. I tried to argue that she had a whole lot of other schools that had hired her in the past and would hire her in the future. She continued to plead and I finally backed off. We didn’t talk much after that.

At work on Friday morning Hobie asked me to join him up in the Board room. That really caught me by surprise. I knew Hobie would be on vacation for the Board meeting but I had taken his place any number of times in the past and any prep for it had taken place right at our desks. Being up in the Board room made me a bit nervous. When we walked into the room both Bert, the president, and Gee, the local attorney/Board member were there. I knew Gee was chairman of the salary committee but all raises and promotions for the current quarter had been approved back in June so I began to really get worried.

It was all good. When some of the Board members had attended the annual bank convention in May they had heard about a new concept in retirement contributions. The traditional way had been that the banks would pay in anywhere from 50% to 75% of the contribution with the employees paying the difference. At the convention they’d heard about banks paying 100% of it. To take that a bit further, some banks were returning the amounts that had been paid in by the employees directly to them with the bank covering that amount. The idea behind it was that it was a way to give employees a raise without increasing their salaries. I sat there trying to do a quick calculation on just what it would mean to me. I couldn’t remember what amount was taken from my pay plus, it had changed with my last pay increase. So, I just sat there and listened as Gee went over the proposal that he would bring to the Board the following Wednesday. They wanted me to hear about it in advance so that I’d be in position to take notes for the Board minutes that I’d be responsible for. In thinking about it now as I write this, I don’t think I fully grasped the overall meaning as we sat there. I knew it was important as all three of the men made a point of the importance of not mentioning it to anybody. I was told that should the Board pass it there would be an employee meeting to explain it. When they got up to leave I just sat there for a few seconds trying to grasp what it would mean to me. It truly was a very big surprise.

It’s very hard to keep a secret,,, especially when you know that it involves all the people you work with. I ended up with a headache trying to keep my excitement under control. I managed to work up an estimate of what I’d be getting back and it was over $1,000. All I could think was ‘WOW!’. The rest of the day just dragged. Trish spent all day working with Joanie and even volunteered to stay until 6pm to give her an idea what Friday nights were like. There was one thing that happened each and every Friday night. At around 5:15pm, or close to it, Mala’s mother would come in to cash her paycheck. Among other things, one of her quirks was that she would only go to a teller who could understand Polish. When Mala had been a teller it was natural for her to go to her daughter. But after Mala left, Cara had been her teller of choice. Cara’s window was right next to Trish’s desk. I happened to see the woman walk up to the window and noticed that she seemed to be quite agitated. She was always quite loud but she seemed louder on this evening. I only knew a few Polish words and I certainly didn’t know all the words she kept repeating. One sounded like "cretin" and another sounded like "gluepee". The third one was pretty obvious when she said "idiota" time and time again. As she was doing this I saw Trish, seated, trying to stifle a laugh. As she did she bent over at the waist and buried her head in her lap. After a few seconds she sort of burst out of her chair and ran into the work area towards the ladies room. I got up to see if Joanie knew what had happened. She shrugged her shoulders and as I looked past her I saw a dark stain on the upholstery of her chair. Seeing that and coupled with the direction she was headed I had a very good idea what had transpired.

When Mala’s mother walked away I asked Cara what was going on with her and all the ‘noise’ that she’d been making. That got Cara to laughing. Long story short... Mala’s mother was upset with Mala’s husband. The words she’d been speaking very loudly meant idiot, stupid and jerk. She was upset because he’d bought a new car and didn’t have the money for it. If there was one thing that was fairly common among the local Polish population was that they didn’t buy things unless they had the money and, based on her comments, it was obvious that he didn't.

While Cara was explaining that to us, Lillian, the drive up teller, came up to ask me if I’d do Trish a favor and to go back by the bookkeeping (computer) machine for a few minutes. At first I was puzzled but not for long. It came to me that she was embarrassed and didn’t want me to see her. I watched as she came out of the ladies room, went back to her desk, picked up her things and headed out the front door. Returning to where Joanie was seated I asked if Trish said anything before leaving. Joanie just smiled saying that the only thing she’d said was she (Joanie) would do just fine without her. That wasn’t what I was looking to hear.

To be continued...