INTO SUMMER... a busy time (Part 173l)

INTO SUMMER… busy time (Part 173l)

On my way down the stairs in the morning I spied the sewing machine and the panty project I’d started on with Elle a few days earlier. Seeing it reminded me that I’d promised to spend a little time working on it with Elle when I got home. But, with the focus on Bermuda, I’d forgotten about it. With the lights out in the dining room when we’d headed for bed the night before I hadn’t seen the machine. Right from the time I’d woken up I’d been working on just what I’d say to my mother and how I’d segue into having her help out with the trip. I knew I could cover the cottage colony costs on my own but it was the airfare that was going to make it ‘tight’. Standing there looking at the things I’d laid out I glanced at my watch. To have my plan for my mother work I had to time my visit with her so my father wasn’t there at the same time. I guess I’d picked up on one of his habits of doing certain chores on certain days and at basically the same time. Saturday mornings were for taking the trash to the landfill for both of us. But, before doing it he had to have his coffee which served as his breakfast. He’d ususally leave the yard somewhere around 9am. So, in working out my plan I had to find a place to more or less hide where I could see him go past me. My friend, “Big B” lived on the road that led to and from my parent’s house so I was off to make a surprise visit to see him.

Pulling into his yard I could see he wasn’t there which was even better. It meant I could pick a place behind his hedge where there was little chance for my father to see my car. It was probably 9:20am or so when I saw his big Buick drive by. I was at the house in minutes. To say my mother was surprised to see me is putting it mildly. It didn’t take her long to realize it wasn’t a social visit. I cut ‘right to the quick’ and asked her why she brought up the miscarriage again with Elle. I can still remember the blank look on her face. I stayed right on topic and told her that we’d talked about it before and how I’d asked her not to do it. When it ‘clicked in’ she started to apologize but I cut her short telling her that in just minutes she’d undone all the effort I’d put in to get her mind off it. Then I ’softened’ a bit and told her that I wanted to take Elle back to Bermuda again so that she could have a few days where she’d have nothing to remind her of it. I didn’t expect that she’d remember here off-hand comment for almost a year prior so reminded her of when we showed her the pictures of our trip. I repeated what was close to the exact words she’d expressed at that time… and then waited… but not for long. I closed in on the point I was trying to make by saying I felt she owed us something for not being more conscious of Elle’s feelings. The look on her face was one of surprise which made me a bit upset. I figured it would take at least a couple of tries to get her focused in so came right out and told her to be able to do it we needed help with the air fare. It took but a few seconds for me to hear “How much?”.

Because I hadn’t done any research on it I didn’t have a number. When I’d made the arrangements for the previous trip I’d bought a total package and really didn’t know the flights cost. I hesitated and threw out a random dollar amount of $200 not knowing what to expect. She wrinkeld her brow but only for a few seconds and then I heard her softly say she didn’t think that what she’d asked Elle was “out of line”… but then said “OK”. I’d won the ‘battle’ but not the ’war’ as she’d have to have my father write the check or give me the cash. But I was satisfied as I headed back home. I hadn’t told Elle where I was headed but when I walked back in the door she knew something was ‘up’ as I’d never take the garbage to the landfill in my car. I went over the scene with my mother and certainly didn’t expect the reaction I got. She thought I was way too hard on her. But, what was done was done and I had a promise of $200. At least I was happy.

After the landfill, a stop at the race car and a visit to the church to check on the condition of the lawn I was home by the noon siren. Cliffy was grumpy (pretty much as usual on race day) and I reminded Dick to stop by and pick me up. We were leaving early so Freddy could get the fuel injection tuned for us. It meant I had about an hour and a half. Our lawn definitely needed cutting but the panty project was on the dining room table. Wanting to keep Elle’s mind occupied I decided to tackle that rather than the lawn. After we ate I took Elle in to explain what I had in mind for her to do. I showed her the lines I’d drawn on the plastic from the disassembled plastic panties and how much larger the crotch would be than on the store bought sanitary panties. She thought it was too much but I told her it was better at this stage of development to be too big than too small and told her to cut along the lines I’d drawn. The next step was to decide how much material to cut out of the regular nylon panties. She was wearing a summer skirt so I had her hold it up while I measured from the waist elastic at the small of her back down between her legs and back to her navel. She was wearing a pair of the dribble panties because she was home and a toilet was readily available. Her crotch was just a little damp but she wouldn’t let me ‘visit’ telling me that this was “business”, but with a smile. Then I measured the length of the proposed plastic crotch and came up with the amount of material we’d have to leave on the panties. With the newly cut plastic crotch I laid it on the nylon panties but couldn’t decide just where to cut them. Time was running out on me so I told her to hold up the hem of the skirt and I put the plastic crotch between her legs and tried to get it centered and with a ball point pen marked the front and back for where it would end. Then I measured from the waist elastic to the mark in both the front and back and did the same on the panties we’d chosen to use as our trial pair. I drew the arc of the crotch on the panties and told her to cut out everything between the two marks. Then I had to go but at least she’d have something to do after the kids went to bed. The only thing was we didn’t have any elastic for the leg openings so they’d only be partially complete by the time I got home. But she seemed energized to be able to work on something that might work to make things better for her.

We were the third car in line signing into the pit area at the track. Our pit stall was the first one inside the gate which meant everyone signing in would see the eight fuel injection stacks sticking out of the hood of our car and believe me, it turned a few heads. Freddy was soon there with his box of ‘pills’ and had one inserted in minutes. I have to tell you that it was probbaly my imagination but the motor sounded more powerful than with the carburetor. By the time the track opened for practice Freddy had changed the ‘pill’ at least three times and I remember him saying it probably would have to be changed after Cliffy was out on the track. After that first run it was obvious that Cliffy was pleased. Freddy had told us that it was imperative to check some of the spark plugs to make sure we weren’t running too lean or too rich so Dick hit one side of the motor and Alan the other. They took the plugs down to Freddy’s pit where he looked at them and gave them a ‘pill’ number to put in the line. Once that was done we were ready and anxious to go racing even if we were still starting in the rear.

To be continued…