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

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

There wasn’t much we could do except to wait for the written report of the examination which was normally about two weeks. With the examiners now gone I could focus on my day to day job. Friday turned out to a carbon copy of Thursday in that there was a continuing outflow of deposits. When another one of the customers showed me an advertisement for a higher rate I took more interest in it than I’d done the day before. It was a bank in Colorado and they were offering 8%. The depositor was claiming we were cheating him by only paying 5%. In spite of his vehemence I took the time to read the fine print. It was for a Certificate of Deposit and the deposit (investment) had to remain on deposit for two years. I pointed that out but it was ignored. The next thing was the minimum deposit (investment) was for $25,000. Federal insurance on deposits at the time was at $15,000 and when I reminded him of that he finally shut up. But, he was a prime example of what all banks in the state were faced with at that time… depositors angered by the high advertised rates from out of state financial institutions and then not reading the details. By mid afternoon I was moved to call the other three like banks in the County to see if they were experiencing the same kind of outflows. They were… but declined to give specifics. Before he left for the day I gave Hobie my findings. When he said it could wait until Monday I decided I could block it out of my mind as well and concentrated on the weekend.

Even though Kaye’s birthday wasn’t until Monday it was decided that the family would celebrate it on Sunday, complete with a sit down meal. Because Elle had been working steady for a couple of weeks Elle’s mother volunteered to host it to take some of the pressure off Elle. The only thing Kaye had really wanted for her birthday was a doll called Chatty Cathy. For reasons I can’t remember, the older two had by-passed wanting it when it was first out on the market. Kaye had seen the doll somewhere and pleaded for it. Other dolls had replaced it as far as popularity so, although still manufactured, it was not readily available. The toy store just down Main St. from the bank had been willing to order it special for me and had let me know it had come in. However, my days had been so hectic I hadn’t been able to get there before the store closed. The Chamber of Commerce had made it a point to get the majority of the stores to stay open until 8pm on Friday nights and had been successful. So that was my goal after leaving work… pick up the doll. By the time I got home it was 7pm and after eating I was looking for a nice quiet evening. As I pulled up the driveway I saw a red Peugeot… and I knew who I’d find in the house… Polly.

I’d been impressed with her when I met her and she’d stayed overnight with us. She seemed so eager to get her teaching career started that she almost didn’t seem real. And now, it turned out that even though she wasn’t to start until Monday, she’d come out to watch Elle teach and to get to know a little more about the kids she’d be with. She’d surprised the principal and, of course, Elle, when she showed up. She hadn’t told anyone. It had been her intention to go back to where she’d been living when school was over but Elle persuaded her to stay for supper. Selfishly, I wasn’t all that happy with the ‘surprise’ but it worked out OK as she and Elle spent a couple of hours together and I had a chance to be with the kids. Kaye still didn’t know about her upcoming trip to the city and the circus. Elle and I made it very clear the older two weren’t to say anything to her about it. As I remember it, it was more like a threat… but it seemed to have worked.

The big thing about the birthday party on Sunday was to have a birthday cake, with candles and, of course, ice cream for Kaye. We waited to tell her about the circus until after the cake and ice cream. In retrospect, she really didn’t understand the concept. Even when we told her that “Aunt Ginger” and two of her girls would be going, it still didn’t seem to excite her. When I was helping clean up the kitchen I suggested that Elle take her to the library and find books about the circus to get her excited about it. I remember thinking that maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea.

The circus always held matinee performances on Saturdays and Sundays but with this being Easter week they added shows on both Thursday and Friday. Elle and Ginger had decided on Thursday and my banking friend, Dan, confirmed that he’d obtained five “good” seats. In talking with him I began wishing that I was going. Elle met with Ginger to co-ordinate how the transportation to the city and back would work. It wasn’t going to be easy because there was only one train from the city and one train going back each day and they were in the middle of the day. The train from the city was called the “noon train” because it arrived around lunch time. The train back would leave around 2pm. However, there was also the bus/train combination. The one to the city started with a bus that would pick up passengers in our town a little after 6am and pick up the train at a station located about halfway to the city. It would arrive little after 9am. The combination train/bus for the return trip would leave the city at around 3pm and the bus would get to our town just after 6pm. For the trip to the city the bus would stop at a designated place at the edge of the village. There was no parking lot so I volunteered to drop off Elle and Kaye and Jon, (the milkman), Ginger’s husband was going to drop her and her kids off. It meant getting up at 5am… and it was daunting.

Even though Ginger was completely knowledgeable about Elle’s incontinence, Elle was still uncomfortable wearing a full ‘package’ (multiple heavy ribbed cotton Carter’s ‘Spanky Pants’, three sanitary pads with a pair of plastic pants) when with her. As she was getting dressed I told her, in no uncertain terms, that she needed to wear one and to take spares. There was no rest room on the bus and the public facilities at the train station were deplorable. She finally gave in and also went along with another of my suggestions… to wear a skirt. By the time I won my points she was upset with me and told me she wished she’d turned the idea of the circus down. She was grousing about what to put her extra supplies in and I remembered a satchel like bag my mother had given her. She hated it saying it made her feel like a beggar. However, when I pulled it from the closet she was mad enough to grab it from my hand without saying a word. I watched her take some of her “Spanky Pants” from her panty drawer and then stuff some sanitary pads in it as well. Even though I knew I was treading on ‘thin ice’, I suggested she might want to take some extra clothes for Kaye. I remembered a few of my trips to the circus and the ‘treats’ (ice cream, cotton candy etc.) and how I had managed to get a lot on me. I don’t think she said another word to me until we were waiting for the bus when she told me to be sure I was there upon their return. I just nodded back.

To be continued…