MAYHEM IN MAY... life goes on (Part 159q)

MAYHEM IN MAY… life goes on (Part 159q)

Working in close quarters with Dick while under the car we got to chat a little about family. I mentioned Elle’s and my dilemma on getting a bicycle for Jean and what it’d do to the relationship with her sister if her sister didn’t get one as well. I remember him laughing and then telling me about his boys and precisely the same thing. He told me his wife was way more concerned than he was and he went ahead and got the older one the bike anyway. He added that the younger one got over it quickly… but added that boys are different that way. When we’d finished our part of the job we were standing next to the car and he asked if I thought it would help if he loaned me one of his kids bikes for a while. I didn’t really know if it would or wouldn’t but asked why it was available. He laughed saying his older daughter had fallen out of a tree and broken her arm in two places and severely sprained her ankle. He said it’s be some time before she was on a bike again. I didn’t know what Elle would say but stopped at Dick’s house (he lived less than a quarter mile away and on the same road) to get the bike. Of course I had to wait until morning to broach the subject with Elle but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. I thought about what Dick had said about how quickly the situation went away and decided to focus on that when I told Elle.

She clearly didn’t like the idea of a borrowed bike but couldn’t come up with an alternative. We decided to go ahead with the new bike for Jean and to take Anne aside and tell her that in a day or two we’d borrow a “big girl” for her to use hoping that she’d focus on just having one and not that it belonged to someone else. That gave me time to pick up  the new bike that afternoon and to have it ready for Jean the next morning.

By the end of the workday Jerry had talked with over two dozen applicants and had selected ten for one on one interviews. I would never have conducted a preliminary interview without a completed application in front of me. I’d noticed him madly scribbling things on a yellow pad for two days and wondered how he’d decipher it all when actually viewing the person. I’d done my part and contacted the restaurant where he was to meet with them and arranged for it to take place Friday morning. Right from the beginning I had a very bad feeling about letting Jerry handle it on his own but, as I’ve written, I was told “hands off”. The one thing I did do though was to watch where he put his ‘scribblings’. Still driving to the city each day, he would leave promptly at 5pm. By 5:30pm, with most people gone, I went to his desk and found the folder. I was somewhat surprised in that there was actually some organization to it. I made a few notes of my own based on the comments he’d written in red. I wanted to see if his perception of a qualified applicant held up when he made his actual selections.

The store that sold bikes was right on my way home. Elle and I’d agreed on one thing and it was to be a ‘plain Jane’ bike and without all the fancy stuff that was coming in to vogue at the time. I do remember the manufacturer… Ross, and it had dark blue fenders and the cost was around $35. Since I had my car the box with the bike ended up sticking out of the trunk and held in by common twine. I was nervous the whole way home. I’d called Elle when I left the bank and told her it’d be about an hour and to occupy Jean away from windows facing the garage. I actually made it all the way to the driveway before the twine broke. However, I was going so slow that when the box slipped out of the trunk it didn’t hurt it. All I could hope for was that Elle had Jean on the other side of the house.

We’d given Jean absolutely no indication that we’d honor her birthday request so when she came down stairs for breakfast and saw the bike in the kitchen she started to cry. I, myself, had no idea it was so important to her. Anne, on the other hand, just stood and glared at the bike. I’m not sure she said any words at all before leaving for school. We’d decided it was too hard to have a party with friends on a school day so for Jean it was only family… Elle’s and my parents. Elle’s mother didn’t believe in multiple gifts for birthdays so only had one for Jean. On the other hand, my mother went overboard but did one thing to help alleviate the tension between the two girls… she had presents for Anne as well. My mother was all in for clothes… which was OK by Elle and I. Each of the girls had developed an interest there as well so other than Elle’s mother feeling a bit ‘outdone’ by my mother and her multiple gifts, the evening went well. Anne, with new clothes, had forgotten the bike thing and that gave us time to present the borrowed bike to her at a later date and under better circumstances.

The following day was Memorial Day and, as I mentioned, I was helping to stage the local parade. It was to start at 9am at the local American Legion parking lot. My involvement was for about an hour and once the last participants were on their way I was free to go. Elle, after talking with Phyllis from next door, had decided to go to the big parade with them since there wasn’t that much to see locally. Barbara and Mo were supposed to be in the parade but had convinced Bill, their father (and the principal), that they should be with their cousins from Germany so the whole family went. I was going to be home alone… nice!

To be continued…