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

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

Stopping at the main office the next morning I was able to confirm the number of accounts they had opened and the distribution of gifts. They had opened over 100 and the blankets were the big “winner” with about 40% choosing that over the electric mixer and drill. The drill was turning out to be a far distant last which surprised me in that for actual cash value it was the most expensive. Bret and the temporaries had pretty much reprised the gift display from the previous campaign and had worked out the logistics of keeping a ready supply on hand. Upon leaving I made a special effort to compliment Bret because it was sometimes a little hard to motivate him.

Back at the branch… Jerry was behind his desk in his office and there were at least ten customers waiting to have accounts opened. I walked in and asked why he hadn’t moved a couple of the tellers out from behind the counter like I’d done the day before and all I got was a blank stare. I pointed out that he could be helping out as well reminding him that it was his primary job back at the main office. I didn’t get an answer but promptly led a couple of women in to his office. As I did he weakly put up the excuse that he didn’t have any new account materials. I didn’t know what the women thought when I barked at him to go get some.

By noon the ‘crush’ had pretty much dissipated. From that point on it was an easy, steady flow of customers with no more than a few people waiting. We were all able to get a bite to eat which was a far cry from the day before. I sat with Barb and one of Mae’s nieces to eat and commented on the scratch on her arm. She told us she was the catcher on her softball team and someone had crashed into her the night before. We were sitting at the table and she suddenly pushed back from it and thrust out one of her legs and pointed to it. There was a bruise on her calf but that wasn’t what caught my attention. To do it she went splay legged and pulled up the hem of her dress. I’m sure I made some sort of facial motion or sound but it wasn’t in reaction to the bruise. It was the flowered panty crotch that did it. It was for only a few seconds but it did reinforce the fact that she liked flowered panties.

Hobie called during the early afternoon to see how things were going. Of course I didn’t tell him what I wanted to, sucked it in and told him all was well. In fact, it was going so well I was entertaining the idea of not coming back to the branch the next day. I found a few minutes to gather Betsy, Rita and Mae together and listened to their thoughts on the subject. Other than being a little resentful about Jerry not jumping in to help they thought they could handle it. I made them promise to call if ANYTHING started to go wrong. With sly smiles they acknowledged that they would.

The tally at the end of the day was a bit disappointing in that even with two more hours they didn’t open as many accounts as on opening day. The average balance remained around $700 and that, too, was disappointing. I’d not been privy to any of the discussions leading up to the decision to open a branch and had no idea what the Trustee’s expectations were. Other than with Gee, the attorney/Trustee, I really had no interaction with them so I was basing my expectations on the results from the main office new account gift campaign the previous year. We’d averaged around $1,300 per new account and in the first two days had opened over 250 accounts. And, that was with competition from eight other banks and savings institutions in our immediate area. As far as I knew we had no competition anywhere near the branch. It was troubling, at least to me.

Blankets were still the ‘hot item’ (pun intended) with about 40% being the choice. I still couldn’t fathom the concept with the hottest weather about to descend on us. Electric mixers were next followed by the step stool. I took the numbers with me to compare them to the main office activity the next day. Jerry did the consolidated proof again and took about the same amount of time to do it. I remember Mae rolling her eyes when he declared them “in proof”. It was just 5pm.

To get to my house from there it would normally take just under an hour but at that time of day, even without any major businesses or industries nearby, there was still heavy traffic. As I mentioned in earlier posts, suburban crawl was headed in this direction and the few developments there were were definitely ‘bedroom communities’. Knowing I’d be at the main office on Friday I didn’t even give the idea of stopping at the main office a thought. I was actually home before I usually was, even getting a chance to stop at the post office. I’d bypassed the annual school board meeting and election having been warned by both Bob and Jon, Board members, that the new guy running for the Board had no chance at all. However, as I’ve mentioned in prior posts, if you wanted the latest ’scoop’ the post office was the place to get it. The rumor was that the Board was going to ‘reign in’ the new principal. No reason was given and I knew Elle hadn’t heard anything either. I sloughed it off as small town gossip. However, it did remind me that Barbara would be moving in any day. I still had mixed emotions about it.

After supper the girls wanted to “go golfing” again in the back yard. I’d called Cliffy a few times and had been told he was either on a “road call” or working under a car. I’d wanted to find out, first hand, what the story was on the motor and had intended to go to the shop or to his house to find out. However, the pressure from the girls won out and we headed for the back yard. It got a little boisterous and before long we had two visitors… Barbara and her sister, Mo. They joined in and we managed to make a game of it. When they got bored Mo told us that she would be leaving in the morning. I immediately asked Barbara when we could expect her and she just shrugged her shoulders and looked at Elle to speak. Elle did the same, shrugging her shoulders. It was an impasse until I made the suggestion that with four of us right there we could easily move Barbara’s things over. She said they’d been boxed up and were ready to go so for the next 10 minutes we lugged them over to our house. Seeing that it was actually happening really had my kids excited even though Barbara would be spending that night with her family. For me… I just hoped it would work. Two weeks was a long time.

To be continued…