SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169a)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169a)

Winter can become downright boring. Banks like the one I worked for had peaks and valleys when it came to being busy. One of the valleys was February. The problem with valleys was that employees became complacent because they weren’t all that busy. This wasn’t just the tellers as home buying would fall off and there wouldn’t much work for the mortgage people either. It was a challenge for each department head to keep their staff ‘on their toes’. That wasn’t a problem for the operations area in February because we were responsible for getting the information about how much money each account earned in interest for the preceding year mailed out to the depositors. This would be the second year the service bureau would produce the statements and I was hoping they would do a better job of it. To ensure it I decided to make a trip to the data center to get a ‘feel’ of how they were going to do it. Each time I visited them I would look forward to seeing Gracie, the woman who handled the training for our tellers… and me. I won’t retell how I managed to get a pair of her panties during that training but I did and they were ‘special’. They say “Hope springs eternal…” and I was hoping to not only see her but to possibly get a 'peek' as well. On this visit I found the bank was no longer a “premier” customer. That’s not to say I wasn’t given attention but the ‘big wigs’ were no longer available to answer my questions. I was taken to a small office where I was introduced to Winifred, or “Winnie”.

Now, to go about describing her… No nonsense… personality of a rock… bitch…? I walked in and started to introduce myself. She cut me off with “I know who you are. What do you want?” I started to speak again only to hear “Your statements will be done on time and correct. Anything more?” I was too shocked to respond so retreated out into the work area. I went searching for George, the machine room manager, but couldn’t find him. I asked a couple of the machine operators who the woman was and in one case just got back a smirky smile. In thinking back on it I’m not sure I ever had had anyone speak to me, as a customer, quite like that. I knew I was going to write it up as soon as I got back to the bank. However, as disconcerting as that episode had been I was bound and determined to find Gracie. Regardless of title, she was truly a ‘nice person’ and I hoped that in seeing her it would serve to calm me down a bit.

Everybody knew Gracie so, after wandering about the facility for a few minutes trying to find her, was successful and was greeted with a big smile and a hug. Even though it had been a year since I’d stayed at her house and taken the panties I was still a little concerned. But, all she wanted to know was how the tellers she’d trained were doing and how the bank liked the service. That gave me the ‘opening’ to bring up Winnie. She laughed when I did. “Her bark is worse than her bite.” was her immediate response. I know I had a sour look on my face as a reaction to that. She went on and assured me that if Winnie was working on a project for the bank that it would be as close to perfect as could be expected. Doubt still must’ve been written all over my face because she then said if I had a question about it to call her and not Winnie. I was all for that. Gracie had excused herself from the group she was instructing so apologized to me and turned back to her ‘pupils’. Walking back to the parking lot I felt I’d wasted a whole morning.

I don’t know what made me think of the prospective branch and it’s location. It wasn’t located on my direct route back to the bank but it wasn’t that far off. Since I was now on the branch committee I wanted to have as much information as I could gather and thought it might be a good idea to take another look but this time with a more positive attitude. The street/road it was located on was a major North/South route to leading to the main East/West highways and that was why Morris selected it. Upon arrival I placed myself in the role of a customer and tried to figure just how the layout of the footprint of the building might go. Unlike the first branch, there were definite options. Ingress and egress seemed like it might be a problem though. The lot was overgrown with weeds and debris and, from a public relations standpoint, felt that as soon as the bank took title to the property it needed to be cleaned up and fenced. Upon leaving I decided to drive North to see what kind of housing developments were located there. As I did I saw a lumber yard with a big auxiliary sign advertising fencing. I pulled in to get some material on it and as I walked up to the counter I did a ‘double take’ as there, standing behind it, was a fraternity brother from college.

“Big Jawn” was the name he’d been given in the fraternity. There was a story to go with it but it’s not important here other than to say he was embarrassed in front of the other staff people around him. I could see his cheeks flush as he, as politely as he could, whispered for me to please not call him that again. He’d been two years behind me as far as school was concerned. When I was a senior (and married) I didn’t spend all that much time at the fraternity so never really got to know him. I knew he ended up doing well in school, winning a couple of awards (as seen in the alumni bulletin) and was active on the alumni council. Of course, he wanted to know what brought me in to the store. I gave him an overview of what was being discussed by the bank and as soon as I did he waved me to follow him into an office right behind the counter. There were windows all across the wall allowing the person behind the desk to observe almost the whole counter. I took a look as I sat down next to his desk and could see a young female sort of ‘darting’ from place to place. The one thing I took notice of was that the apron she had on was longer than the dress she was wearing. When she’d tied the string in the back she’d hiked the skirt up a bit making the view rather interesting. I wished I was sitting behind the desk rather than along side it.

It turned out that John’s father was on the zoning board and the parcel we were looking at had been a problem for an extended period of time. Basically, it was the only buildable site left on the road but, potential developers had continually been thwarted with getting approval for ingress and egress onto the main road. The parcel was a corner lot and, without going into a lot of unnecessary detail, the zoning board had rejected all the proposals submitted. What he wanted me to know was it might be a problem for us as well. I thanked him for the information and told him I’d like to get together with him for lunch if the project moved forward. When I turned around to leave I made sure to locate the girl I'd seen and wasn’t disappointed. She was bending over to pick something off the floor and I had a couple of seconds to see a bit of her flowered panties. At least I had one pleasant thought as I headed back to the bank.

To be continued…