ANOTHER YEAR... More adventures (Part 168m)

ANOTHER YEAR… More adventures (Part 168m)

By chance, Hobie and I arrived in the parking lot at the same time. Of course, I was anxious to find out what, if anything, took place, especially when it came to “Polack Joe”. Before I could get a word out Hobie wanted to know if I felt being a member of the banking association committee was worth the effort. That came at me ‘out of the blue’ so my answer was purely a reaction… and it was very positive. I didn’t have time to try and ‘read’ Hobie because we were at the back door and other employees were there and acknowledging both of us. Quickly, I was walking across the lobby floor and realized I still had no idea what, if anything, had happened at the Board meeting but Hobie had stopped to chat with Lorie. I took a chance and asked Bret if he’d gotten any information concerning the Board meeting and all I got was the shrug of his shoulders. I remember feeling somewhat strange and couldn’t put my finger on why.

Going through the mail and telephone messages from the previous day there was one message that stood out. It was from Ruthe from over at the stock broker’s office. I couldn’t remember ever having gotten a call from her as she was the office manager’s assistant. I knew him and had talked briefly with him in the past but he wasn’t my broker so my immediate concern was that something had happened to Stan. I’d not tried to contact him since the little meeting we had with Lynda. That meant I hadn’t had any contact with her… and that was by choice. There wasn’t anything in the message to give me hint so I called the number written on the note. I knew Stan’s number by heart and this number wasn’t it. I was hoping Ruthe would answer but it was her boss, Bill. When I identified myself he seemed glad to hear from me. When he told me the reason for the call I was able to relax a bit. He was inviting me to a “by invitation only” presentation concerning I P O’s. I remember responding “What’s an IPO?” And then being totally embarrassed when he said that it was an initial public offering for stocks and or bonds. I should’ve known and tried to cover my embarrassment by telling him I’d been preoccupied with a disturbance in the bank lobby… a complete falsehood. Bill, undeterred, went on to say that the brokerage firm was getting into the underwriting business (I was pretty sure I knew what that meant) and was having “gatherings’ at each of their branches to explain how customers could participate. Hearing that I was positive he’d gotten me mixed up with someone else. I sort of protested but he prevailed saying that the presentation was for all customers, regardless of the size of their holdings. We chatted about it for a minute or so and finally said I’d come. It wasn’t until later that I had a change of heart. Thinking about it I realized I’d have to tell Elle and that when I did it would probably bring back some thoughts of New Year’s Eve. The affair was to be held the following week at the public library just down the street from the broker’s office. On my way home I weighed just how to go about telling Elle and didn’t like any of my choices. I knew that would make for a long weekend.

The decision had been made to have a “Make An Offer” sale at the Thrift Shoppe and then to get out of that business. In spite of the need for additional monies no one wanted to make the continued effort to go out and find saleable items. I knew I sure couldn’t do it. I’d put way more time into the project than anyone else and I wasn’t even for the idea to begin with. That Saturday was the big sale. A couple of the women had volunteered to separate the clothes that had been dumped on the floor of the storage area into like types… coats, pants, jackets etc. I agreed to be the arbiter as far as price was concerned. I wasn’t about to let a coat worth a few dollars go for a dime and when I made my observation about just that I found myself the one to make the final decision. Normally, the shop was open only on Saturday mornings but, to make sure we got rid of as much as we could the hours were extended to 3pm. Arrangements had been made with the charity where we’d donated other unwanted items for them to clear all that was left. The minister said he’d have family members there to make sure the basement was clear and clean for the Sunday “Meet and Greet”. The final results were underwhelming… a little over $100… but it was enough to cover both the shortfall for the minister’s pay and to pay the delinquent electric bill. “Little Victories” had been my battle cry and we seemed to have made it.

We’d had a relatively ‘quiet’ Winter as far a weather was concerned. My father had called about the time we were headed for bed on Sunday night to warn me there was snow on the way. The city was to get a fair amount but, very often, that didn’t mean much to us. But, on occasion, it was a warning for a lot more. There was little I/we could do to prepare for it that late on a Sunday night. The only ‘positive’ was that worrying about it took my mind off of having to tell Elle about my plan to attend the presentation being put on by the stock brokerage. I was up to check for snow each time Elle got up to use the toilet. At daybreak there was only a dusting of snow but there was a strong wind blowing out of the East, not a good omen. Elle was concerned when, by the time she was to leave for school, there was no mention of school closings. She hated driving when there was snow because the back and side roads could get really treacherous and she had to use both to get to and from school. Added to that was her mother absolutely wouldn’t drive in snow. That meant I would have to take Kaye to her house which added almost an extra half hour to my trip to work. It was not a good way to start the week.

I’ve written number times about my believing in omens. It didn’t take long for that to come into play. Someone had missed the turn on to the road to Elle’s mother’s house which held me up for a few more minutes. Then, approaching the downtown area I found the railroad crossing gates down and blocking the road. I was in a position which prevented me from turning around so all I could do was sit and wait and watch the snow fall. It was well after 9am when the gates finally went up. I was walking in the doors to the bank and never got a chance to wonder what else would happen before seeing a customer laying out on the floor in the middle of the lobby. Trish and Hobie were standing there sort of staring at the person while a policeman was attending to what turned out to be a woman. When I walked up to them it took my breath away as I saw it was Lynda from the stock broker’s office.

To be continued…