SUMMER HEAT... so much going on (Part 161b)

SUMMER HEAT… so much going on (Part 161b)

When Mae returned she had two big padlocks. In the course of conversation I’d mentioned that I’d need to get locks for the storage trailer and she’d obviously heard it. I remember thinking that, in Mae, the bank had a ‘diamond in the rough’ as she handed them to me. Her former husband had been an independent, over the road, trucker and had left all kinds of stuff behind after the divorce. The locks were actually made for trailers like the one in the parking lot. I asked what she wanted for them and she just waved me away.

By two o’clock I still hadn’t seen or heard from the guy who was bringing our supplies and small equipment from the main office. Another call to Bret got me the information that Ward, the guy’s boss, was out looking for him. On that, all I could do was to continue to wait. It was when the women took a break in mid afternoon that Jerry re-appeared. I can’t really do justice to describing the sad sack demeanor he presented almost all the time but this was really bad. During the break I had taken a few minutes to sort of explain my situation with Jerry. Knowing that they would have to work with him I tempered my comments a bit saying that Jerry, with many years experience with another bank, had been having a hard time adjusting to the way we wanted things to be done and that we’d had some differences of opinion. I also told them that when in doubt about a procedure to go back to the materials that Lorie had provided them during their training. It was Rita who asked if they should go to Jerry and I had to watch myself in answering. I told them to start with Betsy and if they were still unsure to go to Jerry… but have someone write the situation down from beginning to end and have Betsy keep the report.

As Gracie started back to working with the group Mae walked past me and motioned me towards the store room.  I couldn’t imagine what that was about but all she wanted was to ask me to wait around a bit after the training was over for the day. I told her I would but wondered what she wanted. Was she upset with what had happened earlier and was going to quit? I had no idea and would have to wait to see.

The missing delivery showed up around 4pm or so. Jerry stayed in his office but I had to get him to help unload the truck so as to not interfere with Gracie’s training session. To give further indication of just how ‘far out’ Jerry was, he had come to work in a suit and tie in spite of my direction to dress “casual”. When I told him what I wanted him to do he hesitated… but only for a few seconds. I know he was concerned about his suit but I didn’t care. I wish we had video back then because Jerry was a sight to behold. Wimp doesn’t even qualify as a word for his description. The driver of the truck (he’d had a tire blow out and no spare) was close to 70, if not older, and he was carrying three times as much as Jerry.  Not a word was spoken between the two of us and I liked it like that. However, it did keep me mindful of what was to come when he would let Hobie know about my ‘words’ with him.

Gracie had to leave at 5pm so I told the others to have a nice weekend. Jerry wasted no time in leaving which made it easier to meet up with Mae. As I’ve described her in previous posts, a no nonsense “bull dog”, she wasted no time in making her point and it was about Jerry. She wanted me to know that it was Jerry’s wife that had made the hiring selections. She told me she was shocked to see Betsy and Rita at the main office for training. But what was puzzling to me was that they had weak personalities and that she, Mae, had a VERY strong one. I had to ask how she passed the ‘test’. She laughed (a hearty one, at that) and said it was actually his wife who told him to hire her. I know I had a smile on my face when I heard that. Her sister lived in the house next to the one Jerry had just purchased. I remembered when Jerry had shown me the house he was buying and that I’d noticed an old race car in the back yard of the neighbor’s house. Mae’s sister had been very helpful during the transition and moving period for Jerry and his wife and she asked them for a favor… to interview Mae for a job. She intimated that she’d actually been hired before the interview took place.

That didn’t bother me as much as the confirmation of my fears that Jerry’s wife had actually been involved in making the choices of who to hire and who not to hire. In Mae, I saw a strong, confident personality who I had a feeling wouldn’t put up with much of Jerry’s ‘namby pamby’ ways. At least I hoped she wouldn’t. As open as the conversation had been I took a big chance and asked what she thought of both Betsy and Rita. She didn’t say a word but flashed a smile and had two thumbs up. I really, really liked this woman, even if she wasn’t anything to look at.

With the branch as my first priority I hadn’t given the race car much thought. On Friday nights the crew would get together to finish up preparation for Saturday’s races. By the time I got home, changed my clothes and ate it was almost 8pm. I never called Cliffy to find out if the guy who was checking out the cylinder heads had found anything. So, when I arrived at the shop  and found no one there it was the signal that we definitely were not racing the next night. But with us not racing it gave me two nights off. I already knew Saturday was going to be a full day what with getting the sailing club fully ready for the upcoming season and to go off racing after that was going to be tough. So, I rationalized that it was a good thing and immediately started thinking about what might be in store for me at home in just a few minutes.

The last person I expected to find at home was our soon to be moving neighbor, Phyllis. She was there to make sure we were still up to letting her daughter, Barbara, stay with us for a few weeks. When she first asked, and Elle had OK’d it, I had some concerns… and still did… but I’d held my tongue. They had to be totally out of the house before July 1st and Phyllis, her other daughter, Mo, and her three boys were leaving for a relative’s home near Philadelphia in a week. Bill, her husband (and school principal) was going to stay at the school board chairman’s lodge during the expected two weeks it would take to finish their new house she wanted everything in place before she left.

To be continued…