ANOTHER YEAR… More adventures (Part168l)
At the bank, one
thing, for sure, was we were all happy to see the “busy period” come to an
end. However, the end of the one in January meant having to concentrate
on what had, traditionally, been a grueling period of time where the tax
information had to be put together, printed and mailed to the
depositors. The previous January had been the first time the service
bureau had handled the majority of it but it was still far from easy. Bret and
I had met with the key people at the data center in December trying to
’short circuit’ a repeat of the problems we'd had. That second full week of
January was going to be their first try at it and I, for one, was
praying that it went well. Not wanting to get the hopes of the staff up
too high I had Bret warn them that there might be nights where there
would be overtime. Mae didn’t work for the bank that first year so had
no idea what Bret was talking about and she, never shy, made a point of
asking. Of all of us at the bank I knew the most about the data center’s
operation, and it really wasn’t all that much. I’ll admit that when
meeting with their senior people I had times where I didn’t really know
what they were talking about. In any case, between the two of us we sort
of satisfied Mae. Before she left for the night she stopped by my desk
and told me she was willing to work late any and all nights we needed her
to. Later, I told Bret we had a definite “winner” in Mae and would try
to work it out so we could keep her at the main office. He agreed, whole
heartedly.
By a fluke of the calendar, the full board meeting
was on Wednesday of that week as it was the third one of the month. I wasn’t to be involved but had told
Hobie about the previous week’s mortgage committee meeting and the
‘performance’ of “Polack Joe”. He didn’t comment but I had to smile when
I saw him roll his eyes. I’d done some asking around trying to find out
more about him from a businessman’s view. The one thing that stuck out
to me was that he really hadn’t accomplished anything until he got
married and then went to work for his father in law in his insurance
business. Bret had known him from high school as they were both top
athletes and competed against each other. Bret had told me he didn’t
particularly like him back then. From his time as a Trustee, I didn’t either… but
technically, he was one of my bosses. It was struggle for me to accept
him as such.
I’d seen the agenda for the big meeting and one of
the items was a report from the branch committee. I really, really
would’ve liked to have been a fly on the wall to see what was going to
happen when Joe put forth the idea of designing the new branch building
for multiple uses. However, the first meeting of the committee on
Personnel Management was the next day in the city. Because public
transportation was so limited the only way I could be on time for it was to go
into the city the night before. I wanted to be home to eat with Elle
and the kids before driving in so there was no way I could hang around
to see if Joe provoked any ‘fireworks’. In fact, I’d probably have to
wait until Friday.
The biggest advantage to heading for the city
early was that I’d get a good night of sleep and a good breakfast. Upon
arrival at the hotel I recognized another member of the committee
checking in. I’d not formally met him but knew he came from the general
area, upstate, where I’d gone to college. Using that as a reason to
introduce myself, I walked up and started talking about a tavern located
in his town that I and some of my fraternity brothers had frequented.
We became instant friends. He, like me, had been added to the committee
to give the smaller banks some presence. His bank was smaller than mine
and he didn’t have any branches. After getting our rooms we agreed to
meet in the bar to get further acquainted and that ended any chance of a
good night’s sleep.
In spite of some concern about how the
smaller banks would be looked at by the ‘big city boys’, it was a
pleasant surprise to find out they were interested in hearing about our
problems. I’d not even given a thought to speaking but found myself
participating in any number of the group discussions. When the meeting
was over I was anxious to be on my way. I’d been warned that if I wasn’t
on my way out of the city by 2:30pm it would be a long, long, time before I got home.
The member, Don, who gave me that advice let me know that he spent many
Summer weekends in the town just East of where Elle and I lived. Another
‘instant’ friend. As we walked down the hall to the elevator I heard a
female voice call out to me. The vice chairman of the committee was a
woman who was also a senior Vice President of the bank where she worked. I
was actually shocked that she’d hailed me. She was in her 40’s and
looked, as you might’ve expected for a person in her position, very
professional. As she walked up she introduced herself to me and said she
welcomed my vocal participation. She went on that one of the concerns
that had been expressed by the Association management in deciding to
open membership up to smaller banks was weather they would/could add
anything. She closed by saying she looked forward to my continued
participation. At that point I felt really good.
As it turned out
I didn’t get to my car until around 3pm. Don’s prediction of it taking
upwards of three hours, or more, to travel the 85 miles if I didn’t get
on the road by 2:30pm became a reality. There were no cell phones back in those days and
few pay phones so there was no way to forewarn Elle about being late. In
spite of leaving the city feeling good by the time I approached the
house I was worrying what kind of mood Elle would be in. She was getting
used to being back in the classroom but was still pretty tired by the
time she got home. My only hope was that she’d had a trouble free day.
Where I expected to find her a bit grumpy I found her excited. The house
next door had been sold. To get to and from the school where she was
teaching she had to drive past the next door house. On her way home she found
the for sale sign was missing. Then, on a whim, she ducked through the
hedge and saw Andy, the real estate guy and called to him. He came over
and said the contract for the sale had been signed. The buyers were an
older couple and one of the reasons they bought it was so they could
have their children and grandchildren visit during the Summers. Excited
as she was I didn’t want to tell her that Andy had told me about them
the last time I saw him and they weren’t planning on living there year
round. I just left it that the house finally had been sold. The fact
that I was late getting home was completely overlooked and later, well,
let’s just say things were almost back to normal.
To be continued…
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