"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170o)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170o)

I couldn’t wait for my day to end… but the situation with the two lead examiners continued on. The clock was approaching 5pm when Joanie told me Bert (the president) wanted to see me. Lena, his secretary, told me to go right in and as I did I saw Hobie, J J, and Bette from accounting there with everyone standing. Bert was a very easy going man and the expression on his face almost always exuded the beginnings of a smile. Not on this afternoon! I really don’t remember what he said to start as I was too nervous to grasp it. What he ended up doing/saying was telling the three of us we were to attempt to accommodate the requests of the examiners during their time there… no matter how inconvenient it was for us to do so. He then stated that there would be a new person there in the morning to lead the Federal examination and that he was a senior examiner. That gave me the hint that the short, dumpy woman who’d given me a hard time earlier was being replaced. But, it also told me that my fear of having to face a stiffer audit had come true. With that, I waited for ‘the other shoe to drop’, and it did. I was told to aid and assist moving the State auditors out of the Board room and into the open work areas on the first floor. I was to see that the Federal auditors had all they needed to continue their work. While trying to assimilate these facts I couldn’t help but feel I’d been made the ‘scapegoat’. It had been Hobie who’d told each group where to locate their things… but that was because I’d been helping Lynda gather clothes for Ruthe and hadn’t been there to do it. It meant I’d be getting home late… again.

First things first and that was to call Elle… only it wasn’t Elle who answered the phone. It wasn’t any of the kids and I immediately thought I’d dialed the wrong number. However, with our new semi-electronic telephone system I’d entered about eight or so numbers into the desk set and all I had to do was push one button and the number would be dialed… and I was positive I’d pushed number one, our home phone. I don’t remember what I said but I heard the person on the other end of the line say “I’m Polly.” My retort was “Polly who?” Then the voice identified herself as the new teacher who would be replacing Elle and that Elle would be with me in a minute or two. The way the day had gone my patience was worn thin by then. While waiting for Elle I couldn’t help but think that she’d done it again... invited someone she/we didn’t really know for dinner. When she finally got on the line I was in no mood for a detailed explanation so I short circuited it by saying I wouldn’t be home until possibly 7pm… and hung up.

The move of the auditors was done with one less person than had originally arrived. The short, dumpy woman who was in charge of the Federal examiners was, thankfully, gone. Most of both groups were grumbling as it was past their quitting time. I headed for home around 6:15pm. Pulling up the driveway I expected to see another car but there was none in sight. I actually remember smiling as I thought the visitor had eaten and gone. Wrong! I walked in and saw a cute young woman all of about 5 feet tall. Before I could say a word I heard her call out “Hi! I’m Polly!” Elle was putting dishes in the cabinet and Polly was standing next to her with a dish towel in her hand. I know I must’ve had a puzzled look on my face and Elle, in seeing it, told me to take off my coat and have a seat at the table. In less than a minute she had my dinner on the table. Both she and Polly sat down with me but, Elle, as she did, admonished me not to say anything until she’d finished. My only thought was that this better be good.

I’ll spare you the details (although some of it was truly interesting) and ‘cut to the quick’. Polly was, indeed, the new teacher and would be taking over Elle’s class the following Monday. However, she still had some paperwork to complete for the school district and rather than rely on the mail, drove out from her college campus. She, on her own, had wanted to ‘get a leg up’ by observing the kids she’d be responsible for. However, when it was time to leave her car wouldn’t start. Cliffy’s father’s garage was less than 5 minutes, walking, from the school. Beth, Cliffy’s wife, worked at the school and called the garage for help. Cliffy determined that the gears on the starter drive had sheared off and the whole starter motor had to be replaced. Unfortunately, Polly’s car was a Peugeot (French) and there wasn’t a Peugeot dealership in the entire county. The earliest he’d be able to obtain one would be around noon the following day. Polly, of course, was quite upset and Elle, who liked taking in stray cats, offered to bring her home.

I’d calmed down by the time I finished eating and decided to just let it all be. I decided to not ask questions and to just observe Polly. After a while Elle had filled some of my questions on her own. In the little talking that Polly did when filling in some missing ‘parts’ of Elle’s description of her background I got the feeling that she might be a bit overwhelmed by the new job she was taking on. It was her first full time teaching job and even though it was only first graders that she’d be working with I couldn’t help but remember some of Elle’s stories from when she started. My ’take away’ was she was a nice person and Elle was right in offering to help her out. That got us down to the ’nitty gritty’ of logistics. Anne’s room, where Barbara had slept while she was with us, made the most sense even though Jean would be ‘miffed’ by her not sleeping in her room. Then there was the subject of clothes. Polly hadn’t expected to be staying anywhere so hadn’t brought anything. The problem was her size. It seemed like it was a day for short people with problems starting with the Federal examiner at the bank. She was not only short but ‘dumpy’. Polly was also short, maybe 5’1” but thin. With me not present, Elle ended up offering her pajamas and underwear. As Elle told me later Polly was embarrassed about the underwear when she did so that was not going to be an option. That, of course, was a disappointment to me.

Polly proved to be adept at getting along with kids as she interacted with ours to the point of playing school with them. I would’ve thought that the older two girls wouldn’t want any more of school than they had already experienced but Polly had them ‘hooked’. With them tucked away and in bed the three of us sat and talked. I was surprised to find that Paula’s birth name was Pola which loosely translated from Polish means small or tiny. She explained that she was pre-mature and weighed under 4 pounds at birth. Her grandmother, from Poland, insisted she be named Pola which, after her grandmother died, was changed to Paula. She ended up telling us that as a pre-teen and in her early teen years had attended the Catholic girls camp just to the West of where Elle and I grew up. I’ve written about it in some of the earlier posts. She fell in love with the rural nature of the area and had set her heart on getting a job here… and now she had it.

To be continued…