MAYHEM IN MAY... life goes on (Part 159b)

MAYHEM IN MAY… life goes on (Part 159b)

When I woke up Sunday morning Elle and the kids were gone. I hadn’t looked to see what time it was when I finally got home but it was after 11am right then and there. My head was telling me that it had been quite a celebration. I, gingerly, made my way down the stairs and ended up in the reclining chair in the den. Thankfully, it was cloudy so the daylight wasn’t too bright. I remember leaning back in the chair and trying to think back on the previous night. It didn’t take long for a serious thought to pop into my head… there had been a very important person missing while we all celebrated… it was Cliffy’s father. He’d built all the cars that Cliffy had raced since moving up to the top division (Modified) and paid all the bills and never saw a winner. Here we were, a bunch of young “hot shots” (as he called us) that had bought his car, painted it different colors with a new number, bought four new tires and won  in our first try at it. I’d known the man since I was around 10 or 11 years old and I really admired him for being able to make things out of junk. It just didn’t seem right that he didn’t get to see his son win his first race.

Also in my thoughts was “Big B” because if he hadn’t thrown in some money towards buying the new tires we probably wouldn’t have won. AND… thinking about the tires and the big chance we’d taken in buying something that hadn’t yet been tried I suddenly realized that not all the people who’d gathered around the car after the races were there to congratulate Cliffy. They were also there to inspect the tires to see how badly they’d worn. I know I hadn’t checked them out and I wondered if any of the other guys had. AND… that thought generated another… had anyone thought to go to the office to collect our winnings. I knew first paid $1,000 and it was certainly going to help our fledgling operation.

It was about then that Elle and the kids arrived home from church. As she approached the kitchen door I tried to remember if I’d even tried to tell her that we’d won. As soon as she appeared in the doorway to the den I told her and got a casual “I know” back followed by a snide remark along the lines of “I could see that!”. I was expecting some sort of comment to follow but all she said was that we’d been invited next door to celebrate the German twins birthday a bit later on. My head was still pounding and going to a birthday party for teens that I didn’t really know wasn’t high on my priority list.

To say it wasn’t a productive day is an understatement. Elle could’ve been mean and insisted that we do something as a family but allowed me to sleep some more in the recliner. I definitely felt better by the time we headed next door. We were the only non-family members at the party which was a bit uncomfortable. The relatives from Pennsylvania were there and there was a lot of German spoken but, on the plus side, there was a lot of good German food. It was pretty boring for me but, with the way I felt, that was OK. Because Helga and Herta were headed for college in the Fall, their presents were mostly clothes that would carry them through the Fall and into the winter. I just stayed out of the way. When Elle decided it was time for us to go I stood in line to thank the girls for including us. As I waited for our three girls to do the same I looked down at the table where they’d placed their presents. The box right on the top caught my attention. I could see a group of pastel colors sort of stacked one against the other. Then I saw the last one and saw the word “Sunday” embroidered onto the yellow material. That’s when I realized it was a box of day of the week panties. I smiled to myself as I wondered if each one got their own box. In spite of my intentions of periodically checking their wash line I’d failed to do so. I really had no idea of what their preference of panties, cotton or nylon, was but these were definitely nylon.

The most productive part of attending the party, such as it played out, was to get an update on the progress of Bill and Phyllis’s new house. It was definitely not going to be ready for them by July 1 when they had to be out of the house they were renting. Their plan was for the twins to return to Pennsylvania and the relatives right after the current school year ended. They’d been accepted at Temple University in Philadelphia and were planning on attending Summer school to get them used to an American college curriculum. They’d continue to live with the relatives to save money. Mo, Bill and Phyllis’s oldest daughter, was graduating from the local high school a year early and had been accepted at the University of Pennsylvania and was going with the twins when they left. She was also going to Summer school and, like the twins, would be living with the relatives.

Bill said he was putting pressure on the contractor to come up with a place for him and the family to live until the house was completed since the delay was primarily his fault. Because our area was a Summer destination there were few rentals available and, according to Bill, none that were affordable. He did say the president of the school board had offered to rent rooms to the family at his lodge but when Bill was telling us about the offer it was obvious it wasn’t going to happen. He added that a worst case scenario was his three youngest kids could end up with the relatives as well leaving just he, Phyllis and Barbara to find a place. I remember looking at the female relative who sort of winced when he mentioned it. In Barbara’s case, she’d been hired on a full time basis for the Summer at the store where she’d worked part time throughout the school year so, hopefully, was staying. Bill ended on an optimistic note saying there were still six weeks to resolve the problem. All I could think of was 'Good luck!'

To be continued...