'SPRING'ING AHEAD... Better days/? (Part 170x)

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

Right from the beginning of the ‘busy period’ more money was being withdrawn than deposited. The normal ‘busy period’ would have deposit outflows for the first few days and then would be a reversal with substantially more dollars flowing in. Through the first five days the money continued to flow out the doors. It was the same for the other three savings banks in the County. Hobie had told me the rumor was the same thing was happening at the city banks and there was a special meeting of bank presidents being called by the Association that represented all 128 state savings banks. It was to discuss the problem and to try to come up with a strategy to combat the outflows. Bert, the president, wouldn’t be able to attend because of his wife’s physical condition so Hobie was designated to go to the city to represent us. That told me the situation was more serious than I’d thought. Hobie hated to go into the city but this was important enough that he couldn’t just send someone else… like me. The meeting was scheduled for the following Wednesday and that was a regularly scheduled mortgage committee meeting. It meant I’d have to take the minutes and the first thing I did was to check on which of the Trustees would be there. It was just my luck to find that “Polack Joe” was on for the month. NOT something to look forward to. I was hoping against hope that “Gee”, the Trustee/attorney, would be on the committee as well. He, on more than one occasion, had ‘gone to bat’ for me when Joe voiced a negative opinion about me or one of my projects. But he wasn’t scheduled… my bad luck.

I’d been asked by Bert to make a chart of the deposit flows over the past four calendar quarters and was working on it when Joanie rang me up on the phone but didn’t tell me who it was. When I heard Elle’s voice the first thing I did was to glance up at the lobby clock… and it was after 3pm. That wasn’t good as Elle and Ginger should’ve been on the train headed for home. Hearing the tone of her voice I could tell she was really, really upset. Somehow, they’d missed the train. I’d missed the same train a couple of times so I knew it wasn’t the end of the world. The 3pm train was the one that had the bus for the second half of the trip. There were still trains that ran to that station up until 6pm but with no bus to continue on. When I’d missed I’d called my father to drive there to pick me up. In my mind they could catch a later train and then Jon, Ginger’s husband, or I, could drive there to get them. But… and as it turned out, that wasn’t her real problem. Ginger had called her mother in-law who lived in the city and, as Elle explained it, (in detail, after she got home) invited herself (and Elle and Kaye) to spend the night. Even though the call was short it was obvious she was not comfortable. She wouldn’t go into any detail saying they had to go get a cab and would try to call later. That meant I'd be alone with the kids for the night. Since I didn’t cook (and still don’t) I knew I’d have to ask Elle’s mother. Another look at the clock told me she was probably over at our house meeting the girls and the school bus. It took less than a minute for me to call the house hoping Elle’s mother had let them go inside to drop off their books. For the first time in quite a while something went my way… she was there and agreed to feed them and keep them overnight. That gave me some latitude as far as leaving work and allowing me to finish the tracking project. It also gave me the opportunity to have supper at the restaurant owned and run by Cliff, the guy who drove my first race car. Earlier in the year he’d made an ‘off-hand’ offer to sponsor the race car I was involved with and this would be a chance to pin him down on it. He was always super busy (as the chef) but gave me a moment after serving me a fantastic T-bone steak. I can’t say that he reneged on the verbal offer he’d made but what he presented was less than I expected (hoped?). He’d give us $500 and we were to hand out coupons for the restaurant to those people who would stop by the race car after the races. It turned out the money was a one time deal but I thought we’d get more money if the promotion was successful. I really couldn’t say anything because the $500 would buy us a whole set of tires to start the season.  

Back at home it was around 8pm when Elle finally called.  But, as with the previous call, she shared nothing about how the day at the circus had gone. She did say they would be on the ’noon train’ in the morning and that Ginger’s husband would pick them all up. The call lasted less than three minutes. After that, I was able to get in touch with Cliffy about the sponsorship money. He claimed he was about to call me to tell me the crew would soon be getting together to go over the race car to prepare it for the new season. I thought he’d be happy about the money but if there was one thing consistent about Cliffy he always expected/wanted more. It ended up being a lonely night by myself. I had no sign projects to work on so settled for TV. It’s funny but there were times I’d wished for peace and quiet in the house and now when I had it I didn’t know what to do with it.

For some reason this ‘busy period” seemed longer than usual. Maybe it was because the continued outflow of money had continued. By Friday the volume of lobby traffic had slowed. Around 10am or so I got a call from Stan, my stock broker. He started by wishing me a “Happy Birthday”. That caught me by surprise. It was the next day but I hadn’t really thought much about it. At home we’d sort of acknowledged it with Kaye’s party the past Sunday where all the family was present. Stan suggested that we go to lunch as he wanted to talk to me about my portfolio of investments. He made a point of doing that at the end of each calendar quarter. As I said, lobby traffic had slowed which made me feel comfortable in leaving for the whole lunch hour. With the number of complaints about our low interest rates I’d stayed in and had someone grab me a sandwich. Stan told me to stop by the office around noon and we’d grab a bite at Michael's, right across the street.

I walked into the brokerage and as soon as I did Lynda stood up and grabbed her coat from a coat tree. She sort of pushed me back towards the door and then walked past me motioning for me to follow. Outside, by the curb, she told me that both Stan and Bill were in a conference call with the main office in Baltimore. I knew that Bill had been there the previous week and asked if Lynda had any idea what was so urgent. She just shrugged her shoulders and started to cross the street. Just as we were about to go inside the restaurant she handed me an envelope and wished me a happy birthday… and told me not to open the envelope until it was time to go home.

Stan never made it to lunch. Lynda and I spent most of the time talking about Ruthe, her ex husband, Eddie and her recovery. The news was good in that she’d gotten most of her hearing back and that as soon as the bruises on her face were gone she’d be back at work. I asked if she was going to go back to live in her house and Lynda said if she did it wouldn’t be for a while. Lynda had no new news about Eddie and when we talked about him I saw her get almost rigid with anger. With that, it was time to go back to work. With the envelope that Lynda had given me still in my hand I decided to open while walking back to work. This is what I found inside... with a hand written note wishing me "Happy Birthday"
 

To be continued...