ENDING THE YEAR… (Odds & ends (Part 167p)
Thanksgiving had
been late that year and the first of December was the first day of the
following week. The store marketing gurus had not yet sprung “Black
Friday” on the public and the Christmas season didn’t kick off until after
December arrived. The Chamber of Commerce was all set to go with the
decorations for the village and the stores were pretty much ready for
the shoppers. At the bank, I’d been able to get money into the budget
for decorating the exterior and lobby this Christmas and had the garden
shop promise they would have it all in place that week. That was about
all the excitement for early December. I’d also been given the hint that
we’d have a more formal Christmas party this year rather that the last
minute affair in the lobby as we’d had in the past. In anticipation of
just such a happening I made a tentative reservation at one of the small
restaurants in town. Michael the restaurant across from the stock
broker’s office, had made a ‘pitch’ but it was too much, both in money
and for the kind of affair that had been discussed. As far as I was
concerned all I needed was the “OK” from Bert, the president.
Elle
had taught eight days right before Thanksgiving and was to be paid the
Friday of the first week in December. We’d decided that it was like
‘found money’ and would spend it on Christmas gifts. Money had been
tight at Christmas time for a few years and the kids had pretty much to
suffer with clothes in place of toys. An idea I’d toyed with for a few
years was to give all the employees a half day off for Christmas
shopping. I knew I had to wait for the right opportunity to ‘spring’ it
on Hobie and Bert. But, when Elle and I were discussing our Christmas
gift shopping for the kids it came to the fore in my mind. I vowed to
pursue it the first opportunity I had.
As I’d previously
mentioned, there had been a rumor circulating that J J’s secretary,
Lynne, had been seen in town. The rumor proved to be true as she
appeared at the bank one morning early in December. The real surprise
was that she made it through the lobby and half way up the stairs before
anyone noticed. Thinner, and with her hair colored, she didn’t look
like the Lynne everyone was familiar with.Unfortunately, Trish wasn’t at
her desk when Lynne walked in because I would’ve liked to have seen how
she handled it. She went right to J J’s office and as Mary Carol, the
switchboard operator told me later, closed the door behind her. In any
case, I got a call from J J before noon telling me that Lynne was ready
to come back to work. That wasn’t as much of a problem as was what to do
with her replacement, “Upstairs Sandy”.
I was trying to be
patient with getting any concrete information about the prospective new
branch. I was hoping to get a call from Morris letting me know that a
decision had been made and where the location was. He’d been forthcoming
so far and I’d appreciated his candor. I’ll admit I was tempted to call
him again but didn’t for fear that I’d anger him. He was being paid by
the bank as a consultant and knew that if I angered him he could create a
problem for me. And, I also knew that when it came time for the branch
to open I’d probably be dealing with him when it came time to promoting
it especially when it came to having a gift campaign. He’d guided me
into making good choices when it came to the choice of gifts to offer
for opening new accounts. However, waiting patiently for information
that you know is coming is extremely difficult.
At the luncheon
with Lynda she’d chided me with a challenge that “she wanted to see more
of me” when it was over. In my mind there were two parts to that. There
had been enough ‘signs’ that she liked me more than as a good customer
of the brokerage. I was flattered but really didn’t have any desire to
do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Elle. On the other hand I
knew that when it came to my investing in stocks she was someone I felt
I could trust, especially in the absence of my official broker, Stan. I
was at the stage of ‘when in doubt… do nothing’.
Writing about
Lynda brings up Woody… again. I was reluctant to take a somewhat
aggressive position I trying to get some dialog going between the two of
us. Knowing her to be young and a bit naive I was afraid that she might
do something rash like resigning if she felt threatened. She had yet to
get close to any of the other young girls and I didn’t feel comfortable
in going to any of them to get an idea of what was on her mind. On a
somewhat casual basis I’d queried Trish about how she felt about her.
Her answer was that she was well liked and after speaking to Lauri got a
good report of the quality of work. Like with Lynda, I was at the point
of ‘when in doubt… do noting’ and that was what I did.
One
interesting thing that did happen was when “Big B” showed up with his
new girlfriend, Lydia. I have to be truthful and tell you that she was
not much to look at… and added to that was she really didn’t have much
of a personality. And… she also came with ‘baggage’ in the form of a
hyper active 5 year old daughter. When Elle and I’d chatted right after
“B” had visited us and given us the surprising news about having a
girlfriend we’d come to the conclusion that anyone who would accept a
330+ pound man wouldn’t be a stunning beauty. But, we had hope that
she’d at least come across as a nice person. After she and “B” left we
both shook our heads and knew the life that he’d led was about to come
to a crashing halt. In the hour of so they were at the house I saw
something I’d never seen before while with “B”… an almost silent man.
She dominated him to the point of completing his sentences. What made
that so strange was that she’d only known him for a few months. After
they left it was Elle who commented that it would never work. I had to
agree.
We’d not been very social like we were back when we first
moved into the house. Almost all our friends (the “group”) were
experiencing the same thing with multiple kids who seemed to just keep
coming. So, when an invite came to resurrect the group it seemed like a
good idea. The caveat was that we had to find enough babysitters to
make it work so a number of dates were listed as possibilities. With
Christmas soon upon us it was decided to make it a seasonal themed
party. We had the largest house so, unfortunately, we were to be the
hosts. Elle managed to get the others to agree that if we were hosting
then we wouldn’t have to provide anything, including to alcohol. I
accepted the idea without reservations but was soon to find out that it
wasn’t that way at all.
To be continued…
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