"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170g)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170g)

I hadn’t really noticed Lynda slowly sitting up as I answered her question. But, when I focused on her she had a strange look on her face… not a smile and yet, not a smirk. I’d tried to walk that fine line of giving her a truthful answer and not exposing myself to possible teasing or even rejection by bringing up panty wetting. I just hoped she wouldn’t ‘push’ the topic any further. However, after sitting on the edge of her chair for a minute she, slowly, asked how “aggressive” I became in pursuing my panty peeks. I admitted that, at first, I was a ‘follower’ but over time became quite ‘active’. That made her smile a typical Lynda, mischievous, smile. She asked for some examples and, with a little thought, was able to regale her with stories up until I went off to boarding school. (If anyone’s interested, they are back at the early part of this whole epistle) The smile never left her face. I’d arrived at the house around 7pm and when I looked at my watch it was approaching 8pm. Even though I hadn’t given Elle a time I expected to be home I knew it had to be at a reasonable hour. It would take an hour to get there and a quick calculation of how much time the scheduled meeting and dinner might’ve taken told me I needed to be on my way before 9pm. When Lynda saw me glance at my watch she jumped up and grabbed the box that sat on the coffee table in front of me.

She held it up and, now wearing a teasing smile, asked if it might be the reason I’d come to visit. I’d seen the box as soon as I walked in the room but my concentration had been taken up by answering Lynda’s question(s). She took the cover off and pulled out a leather bound photo album. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to see pictures of her wearing nothing but lingerie… and in anticipation, the bulge in my pants was starting to grow. I knew her well enough to know she was a tease and she was exhibiting her skill at it as she, standing on the other side of the table and facing me, proceeded to slowly lift the cover of the album open. I was now on the edge of the sofa cushion with my knees against the table and my eyes fixated on the object she was holding. She made a couple of abortive passes at opening the cover giving me but a very quick glance at a person standing up in what I perceived as a garden. She had been talking very quietly and I was paying no attention to what she was saying as I anxiously waited for her to flip the cover open all the way. Just before she finally did she, almost laughing, accused me of being overanxious. The jibe didn’t bother me and when I saw the picture I was totally engrossed in it. It was obviously an enlargement because the album was about 5 or 6 inches wide by maybe 8 inches tall, the way she was holding it. As I looked at it I quickly looked at Lynda’s face and saw she was enjoying my reaction. Looking back at the picture I asked about it… where it was taken and how it came about. This is where the whole thing got interesting…

Lynda walked around the little table and sat on the couch. There was about a half a cushion separating us. Still holding the open album she told me her husband liked to do “sets” of multiple pictures all in the same basic setting. She repeated what she’d told me one time before and that he’d wanted to be a professional photographer and had studied photography. Before he started shooting he’d go over with her just what he was going to do and pretty much how he wanted to pose her. About the picture she was holding, it was to be all candid shots. She said he’d picked out some lingerie to wear including panties. At this point she took a look at the picture and pointed to the ones she was wearing and told me they were brand new and he’d just bought them. She laughed and said they were the “trigger” for the idea of picture taking that day. The location was right out behind their house. All that was well and good but by now my bulge was ‘full blown’ and I’m sure she was aware of it. I was a bit reluctant to ask about what else was in the album while she was talking but when she finished I made a bit of an attempt to reach for it. As I remember it, she wasn’t prepared for me to do that and sort of leaned back. Now, as I’m writing this and reliving the scene there had been one thing missing in the time I’d been there. Coy about the album and pictures, she hadn’t teased me with a panty peek. If she had I’d missed it when recounting my early ventures of peeking. In any case, as she recoiled a bit and leaned back he knees spread apart for a second. Sitting so close to her there was no way to see anything but my eyes immediately went down to that area… and she picked up on it… and laughed. As I’ve written, Lynda was very smart and very quick. Now recovered from my reach for the album she smiled and jokingly asked if I’d rather have “the real thing” or a look at the album. What a question!

When I hesitated she looked right at me and said “Your choice…” I hate pressure situations although my experience had been fairly positive when having to make a quick decision. Of course I had no idea what my ‘peek’ would’ve been or for how long and, having seen the one picture from the album and the two pictures she gave me I decided on the safe course and chose the album. I really don’t know what her feelings were when I did but she handed the album to me. When she did she leaned back while I, still up at the edge of the sofa, took the album and turned the page. There were cellophane like pockets that contained the pictures, two to a page and the first two I saw were definitely taken at the same time. Trying to take in and retain as much as I possibly could I could see the effect of having someone with experience in photography had with both the settings and effects. By the third page I was in disbelief. I’d looked at over a dozen pictures and it was all I could do to not start drooling. I took a quick glance at Lynda and she had her arms folded across  her chest with a Cheshire Cat grin on her face. When she saw me look at her she made a comment along the lines of “This is almost worth the price of admission.” By the time I got through all the album, (I think there were 12 double sided pages) I was afraid to move. I looked down and could see my pre-cum had made it’s way through my underpants and my gray suit pants. I wondered if Lynda hadn’t already noticed. She reached for the album but before she had it in her hand I asked her about the two pictures she’d given me. I told her I saw a few more that seemed to be somewhat similar to them. She reminded me that her husband liked to create “sets” and would sometimes take as many as two dozen shots just to be able to pick out the few that he liked. She then asked which ones I’d seen so I flipped through the pages and found about five or six more. One thing I noticed was that there were two vacant spots and I assumed that was where the pictures she'd given me had come from. As I showed the pictures to her she slid closer and took the album from me. “Pick two…” was what I heard. My heart was already pounding but when she told me to make the choices I thought it (and my bulge) were going to explode.
   

I didn't want to keep you all waiting...

 

 

 

To be continued...

"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170f)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170f)

The reaction from Elle when I told her my schedule for the week wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. I attributed that to the positive ‘vibes’ Elle had been exhibiting all week. To keep them coming I made sure to be home in time to eat supper with the kids. To enhance that I made a point of playing games with them after we finished. I made sure not to say or do anything to trigger a negative change in her mood and ended up being an unexpected beneficiary when we went to bed. In the morning I wasn’t able to answer her question as to what time I expected to be home which brought forth the first negative sign I’d seen from her.

To be truthful, I wasn’t looking forward to the scheduled meeting. The group of four banks was created to keep the lines of communication open concerning  the branching plans of each. The bank I was with was the first of the four to open a branch and it created a bit of a panic for the other three. The fear was that we’d start to invade each others ‘territory'. There were no set geographical boundaries so the idea was for the four to share their broad branching plans. The original plan was for the four bank presidents to periodically meet. However, Bert, the president of the bank I worked for, wouldn’t attend meetings that required him to travel because of his invalid wife. My boss, Hobie, as a senior officer of the bank was tasked to fill in for him at the first meeting. At the last minute something came up and he was unable to go. With permission from the other three banks I was sent in his place. Basically, all I was to do was to give a report on our branch activity and that was all. I was somewhat intimidated even though I knew one of the other presidents having worked at his bank when I first got into banking. When the meeting was over they wanted to go out to eat and even though uncomfortable in their presence, was persuaded to join them. On my way home I determined that the underlying reason for the meeting was to go out to eat and drink at their bank’s expense. When the second meeting was proposed as a dinner meeting it confirmed my thinking. I didn’t expect to be representing the bank thinking Hobie would go but… it ended up being me.

The place they chose was a fairly well known restaurant that I was vaguely familiar with. My grandparents had celebrated a wedding anniversary there when I was still a teenager. We were all to meet there at 6pm. To get there I had to fight the traffic from the County Center and left a little early to make sure I was there on time. I knew the location was in the same town where Lynda lived but had put any thoughts of taking her up on her offer (to look at panty pictures of her) due to the hour we’d be finished. It did get me to thinking when I’d be able to come up with a way to do it. I waited until 6pm to go inside. I asked if any of the three men were there and was told that the meeting had been called off. I asked if they knew why and all I was told that one of the  group had some kind of problem. I asked if there was a message for me and gave my name. There wasn’t any which sort of annoyed me. Here I was, over an hour away from home and hungry. There wasn’t much to do other than to head home.

I’d come into the town by using the fairly new by-pass. I had the idea to leave by driving through the town to see how much had changed. The venerable local department store was still there which sort of surprised me. Seeing it reminded me of the old stainless steel encased diner on the edge of the village and decided to stop there to get something to eat. Just before the diner was the Chevrolet auto dealership owned and run by Lynda’s father-in-law. Seeing it put my mind in ‘high gear’. I pulled in to the diner and sat there debating with myself as to weather I should try to call Lynda… or not. To do so meant having to go inside to get to the phone. Still not ‘sold’ on the idea I went to the counter and ordered some soup. Believe it or not, I ended up flipping a coin to make the decision. The phone rang quite a few times before I heard Lynda’s sing-songy voice. It took a few seconds for her to recognize mine but when she did the first thing she asked was “Where are you?”.

It took maybe ten minutes for me to find her place again. Once I found the tavern where Elle had come to pick me up back on New Years Eve I knew I was close. I don’t know why but I was surprised to find her dressed in what I’d call her work clothes… a grey A-line skirt and white blouse. As for myself, as soon as I got in the house at home it was into something comfortable. She welcomed me and as I walked in saw a box on the little coffee table in front of the sofa. She took my coat and told me to take a seat on it. I won’t deny that I was nervous but I really couldn’t tell about her. The initial small-talk was probably somewhat inane. But, after getting something to drink for both of us she took a seat in an overstuffed chair just to the left of where I’d seated myself. The first thing she did was to move forward in her chair and with a somewhat mischievous smile I’d seen a few times before proceeded to ask me what had triggered my interest in panties. Talk about being put on the ‘hot seat’! My temperature soared a few degrees in just seconds. The question caught me totally by surprise and I didn’t know where to begin. Seeing me struggle seemed to please her but after a minute or so she asked me if there was some specific instance that might’ve been the source.
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If you go back to my very first posts here at “Fancy Panties” you can get the details. However, it took me many years to get to the point of addressing it myself and any number of abortive tries to get it written down. I was in my 50’s when I first tried and when I did it was after thinking about it for an extended period of time.
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I didn’t like being under pressure like that and the only thing I could remember off the top of my head was when living in the city with one set of grandparents during WWII. Even though they were considered “rich”, because of restrictions during the war everybody had to make do with what they had. During the Summer, my grandfather would set up a lawn sprinkler in the back yard and that sufficed in place of going to the beach. My grandmother would just strip off my play clothes and let me cavort in just my underpants. There was a girl my age (about 5yo) who lived next door who was also living with grandparents and she was allowed to run and frolic in the sprinkler with me wearing just her underpants. There was nothing more to it than that. However, once I started to go to school there were some boys who would taunt the girls and try to lift the hems of their dresses and thought it was funny. To be accepted I went along with what they did and, over time getting panty peeks became a game. What I didn’t tell Lynda was that the girl next door would often wet her pants and that became another part of my fetish. I’d not told Lynda about Elle’s incontinence so I was trying to keep what I told her to just panty peeks. When I finished she seemed satisfied.

To be continued…

"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170e)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170e)

After supper Elle explained why she was in such a good mood. To start her day the principal greeted her at the door and told her he was really pleased that she would be there for a while. Next, he told her the school board had voted to increase the per-diem for the substitute teachers by 10%. Then, later that day, one of the mothers came in and told Elle she was  going to be a “teacher’s aid” for the class. Elle told me she wasn’t expecting any of it which made it special. Then, to close out the day, Beth came in and told her that her mother was really looking forward to watching Kaye, our youngest, the next day. Elle had approved of the arrangement but wasn’t sure Beth’s mother was “all in” about it. But the words from Beth allayed her concerns. The end result… all of that led up to it being a good evening for me. The earlier word of “later…” from Elle was only a hint of what was to come. It brought back memories of our times before kids. If there was a regret it was that I knew reality would probably return the following day.

The week was busy but there was nothing to really set it apart and worthy of writing about with one exception… I came up with an idea of how to use the family homestead. I called Alex, the town Supervisor and caught him at a bad moment. He suggested that I stop on my way home on Friday. He told me he liked to stay late with no one around to get a handle on what was coming for the following week. He told me where to go to get in. The building had been a grocery market. The company had left the area thinking it wasn’t profitable enough. The loading dock was still out in the back and there was a door that wasn’t regularly used. He told me he’d leave it open for me. It was dark with absolutely no lighting so I had to let my eyes get accustomed to it. When I found the door it was ajar. Calling his name once I was inside, the answer I got didn’t sound like Alex. Then, like a light at the end of a tunnel, one appeared and I could see his silhouette in a doorway at the end of a long hallway. He greeted me with a beer in his hand and asked if I wanted one. I declined and, wanting to get home, told him about a lady I’d met that might be a solution.

Mary was an “artsy” type that had been living in the area for about a year. When she opened an account she’d asked if I could identify some local people who believed in promoting the “arts”. I knew a couple of the Trustee’s had wives who had been involved in promoting a couple of events that were considered “artsy” and arranged for her to meet them. One thing led to another and they and some others had gotten together and created a non-profit group called “EEAHC”.  (It takes too much space to type that in each time I bring them up so I’ll leave it at that.) Initially, they operated out of various members homes. Then, a small space became available at the old school in town. It had been a storage space when the school was built but had become useless as things in the school changed. I’d see Mary about once a month as she would make a deposit. I’d wave and ask how things were going and would usually get a thumbs-up in return. It was around Christmas that her response had not been positive. I made a point of asking what was wrong. Her answer was but one word… “Space…”. I had nothing to offer and she went on her way.

She’d been in during the week but I’d not had an opportunity to speak to her. But, after she was out of the building it came to me… the two houses Alex was trying to find a use for. Body language, if one knows what to do with it, can be a useful tool in dealing with people. I had no training in it but, in waiting on people at the bank I’d learned some signs that helped in the relationship. As I told Alex about the EEAHC I noticed him move forward in his chair and, on a couple of occasions, start to ask a question. He waited until I was finished and then stood up and proclaimed something like “We’ve got a winner!” He was ‘off and running’ at that point. He had a bunch of questions about the group but the only thing I knew as fact was that they were a bona-fide, tax exempt, non-profit. That seemed to energize him and the one thing I definitely remember him saying was he knew just who to see to move the idea forward. By then it was approaching 7pm. I asked if I could call home and as I did he got his overcoat and then waited for me. As we walked out he put his arm around me and thanked me a couple of times. His parting words to me were that I was now a part of “something big” for the town. I didn’t dare ask what it was.

The week continued to go in a positive manner for Elle. Kaye had adapted well to Beth’s mother’s care and the lady who’d come in as a teacher’s aid seemed to work well with her and the class. Mae and I put in about 3 hours in the bank cellar on Saturday. Nothing was found that had any value other than making space. I was almost ready to bring Hobie down to show him our progress. We had about half the first bin cleared and about one third of the middle bin. It was slow progress but it was progress. From the bank I headed for the garage where the race car was kept and where Cliffy worked. They were open on Saturdays until 1pm and I definitely wanted to catch up with him about the promised $500 from Cliff, the restaurant owner. I hadn’t understood the doubt that Cliffy had shown to receiving the money. I had no doubt but, then again, I’d known Cliff as a boss and a friend and he’d always been a ‘stand-up guy’. There was the possibility that Cliffy had a bad experience at one of Cliff’s restaurants. I had to wait until Cliffy finished up with a customer picking up his car. When he turned towards me he asked if I had the money. I was puzzled by his attitude. Here it was, only early March, and we hadn’t even started to get the car ready for the season.

Long story short… over the years he and his father had been promised all kinds of sponsorship money but it hadn’t come through. When I’d told him that all Cliff wanted from us was to hand out cards he thought it was just another empty promise. It took me a while to try and get him to understand Cliff’s concept. Over the years Cliff had come up with a number of successful but ‘off the wall’ marketing ideas including the first “Pennysaver”, a free newspaper filled with want-ads. Cliff’s coupon idea was certainly new in our area and, to Cliffy, wouldn’t work. I was getting a bit upset and finally told Cliffy it wasn’t up to him to decide if it was a good idea or not… and I knew Cliff well enough to feel sure we’d see the money. So as not to prolong the ‘discussion’, I got back in my car and headed home.

I still had  my weekend chores to do but when I walked in the kitchen I smelled something that I hadn’t in a long time… an apple pie cooking in the oven. I was still benefiting from Elle’s good mood. Not that my life at home had been bad but it had been a while since it had been as good as it was this week. The only thing was that I hadn’t given Elle my schedule for the upcoming week. The meeting of the four ‘local’ banks to monitor branching activities within the county was to be on Tuesday night. It was also to be held as a dinner meeting and Elle hated that. Then, the monthly meeting of the statewide banking association was on Thursday and in the city. That was the one where I’d go in to the city the night prior. I wanted to delay telling her until Sunday night to prolong the good ‘vibes’ as long as possible.

To be continued…

"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days (Part 170d)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170d)

I had to ask him why not put the restaurant’s name on the car and after he answered it sort of made sense. Most of the people who attend the races at the track where we raced weren’t people who lived in an area near to the restaurant. But… the people who would stop by the car following the races had an interest in the car and were more than likely local to the area where the restaurant was located. By handing out cards we’d have an opportunity to encourage the recipient to visit the restaurant… and there was a coupon as part of the card. This to me was the most unique part of the card. Back in those days coupons were not in vogue and Cliff saw it as an opportunity. After he finished explaining he cut me off saying he had to start preparing the food for the evening crowd. I thanked him again and headed back to work, a very happy man.

I’d walked past the family homestead on the way to the restaurant but hadn’t stopped to look at it. It had been quite a while since my father had sold the house and property and my interest in it had waned by then. My father had gotten his money and, feeling bad about selling it, he’d made a point of avoiding going past the site. Not as deeply emotional about it, I’d pretty much ignored it. However, on my way back to the bank I made a point of stopping. It was in pretty rough shape. The formal gardens which had been a  downtown showcase had been removed. Some of the shutters were falling apart and it was obvious that somebody had attempted to break in through a front window. The lawn that my brother and I had played on lo those many years prior hadn’t been cut in a long, long time and there was a lot of trash spread throughout the yard. I don’t know how long I stared at the scene but I do know when I continued on towards the bank I was glad that my role in the reclamation was to only find a plausible use for it.

Neither Laura or Sandy had seen Liz during the time she’d been in the bank during the morning and I wondered what their reaction would be when they found out she’d be out for the rest of the month. My original concern had been that Liz would ‘bad mouth’ me to Laura after my talk with her. Now, it was my job to tell her. I called her to my desk to explain what had happened and saw her jaw drop when I did. I’m going to say I probably went a little further than I should’ve when I told her exactly what had happened. I didn’t know what to expect her reaction to be but she seemed to be OK with it. Before excusing her I, feeling a bit guilty, told her I hoped she didn’t think any less of me for calling Liz out on it. On that, she just softly shrugged her shoulders. To me, that was a good sign.

The only other thing on my mind was to tell Cliffy that we’d been promised $500. I knew that would take the pressure off Dick and might even give us a little cushion. With lobby traffic slow I dialed him up but instead of being excited he got hung-up on the coupon concept. I tried my best to explain but soon realized without him seeing what I was talking about I was wasting my time. There was also some doubt about ever getting the money and I had no idea what made him think that. As I write this I’m reminded of a line in the Tom Cruise movie, "Jerry McGuire"… “Show me the money!”. I hung up, lying, telling him I had to wait on a customer and that I’d see him on Saturday.

It was after 3pm when I saw Ward, the guy who cleaned our office up each night, walking across the lobby floor. I’d get to see him from time to time when I’d stay after 6pm but seldom during the day. I know he’d been paid for moving the big desk in the cellar so was interested to find out why he was there. He motioned for me to follow him into the vestibule. Once there he handed me a small plastic bag. He had a funny smile as he did and I couldn’t imaging what that was about and what was inside the bag. The light was very poor In that area so I didn’t recognize the item inside. I reached in and felt a soft, silky material and as I pulled it out recognized that it was a pair of panties. By then Ward had sort of a sheepish grin on his face. I quickly dropped the panties back into the bag fearful someone might walk past and see what we were looking at. He was the first to speak and asked if I remembered telling him to save any panties that might show up in the trash and I immediately did. It was when the elastic on Laura’s panties had broken and she’d fallen in the lobby when they got caught up in her feet. I immediately asked where they’d been found and he pointed to upstairs and said they came from the trash canister at the desk of the president's secretary. Lena! I was smiling by then and I remember thanking him telling him that he’d done a good job. After he left I went into the men’s  restroom to inspect the ‘find’. It was a pair of size 6 Kayser panties embellished with lace appliqués. Really fancy panties!. (I’m almost positive that I still have them but, for the second time in recent months have been unable to locate a part of my old “stash” or I’d show them.) They were dry but my inspection of them proved to me that she'd had an 'accident'... and that increased the size of the bulge in my pants. I’d had a number of opportunities to view Lena in her panties but could only guess as to the manufacturer. I’d thought they’d been made by Kayser and now I knew for sure.

As soon as she was ‘in proof’ Mae was ready to return to work in the cellar. I told her I was only staying until 5pm as I wanted to get home. I knew from experience how much the first day back in a classroom took out of Elle and I wanted to be there to help her with supper. Mae was sympathetic and made me promise to introduce her to Elle the next time she was in the bank. At first I thought it a little strange but told her I would. Not wanting to tackle a measurable project with limited time I chose to ‘explore’ the middle storage bin. As I’ve previously written, when the transfer of the things from the old bank building across the street was done there had been almost no organization of it. The bank was coming up on the 100 year anniversary and it had been obvious that just about every recorded thing had been kept. What was a real puzzle was why some of the equipment had been saved, some of which neither of us had any idea what it was for. I dug some of it out and set it aside with the idea of possibly using it during the 100 year celebration. We really didn’t accomplish much but our discoveries did prove interesting.

Elle’s day had gone better than she expected which put her in a better mood than I expected. She’d changed out of her school clothes and was just wearing a house coat which was like an open invitation to me. I didn’t even bother to take off my coat and was quickly over to her with my hand between her legs. She was dry but whispered the magic word… “later” as she pulled away. Hanging up my coat I saw the Polaroid camera on the shelf and pulled it down. I figured with my luck there wouldn’t be any film although I’d made a point of trying to leave at least one exposure in the camera for just such an opportunity. I went through the dining room to keep her from seeing the camera and when I got to the doorway to the kitchen I saw I had a shot. Not the greatest but I wouldn’t have to beg or plead… and pushed the button.
     

A nice surprise...

To be continued...

"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170c)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170c)

It was late morning when Liz finally showed up. Thankfully, Trish spotted her before she made her way to the work area. I intercepted her and guided her to my desk making ’small talk’ as we did. Once seated, I wasted no time in telling her that any further absences would result in her not being paid for those days. I’m not sure if she said anything immediately but I am sure the look on her face was of surprise. I think her first words were along the lines of “But, I’m an officer…”. I didn’t take the ‘bait’ and reminded her that as the auditor she should know that sick leave policy was the same for everybody. That set her 'off ' and she got up off the chair and headed through the platform gate. I had the presence of mind to call Lena, Bert’s (the president) secretary. I told her it was of the utmost importance that I speak to him right away. I’m sure the tone of my voice imparted urgency as the next thing I heard was his voice. I quickly went over the scenario, as it had played out, and got him to say he’d take care of it. Regardless of what he said to her I knew things between Liz and I would be ‘frosty’ for a while. Her dour personality was well known throughout the bank and, in fact, when Laura had been hired to work with her she’d been warned about it by both Hobie and me. However, they had gotten along well right from the start. With the current situation I had a brief thought that Liz might be a little vindictive and try to put me in a bad light in Laura’s eyes. All I could do was hope that it didn’t happen. I waited to see what Liz would do when she returned to the first floor… but I never saw her return. In fact, no one did and that included Laura and Sandy. When I saw Bert headed out for lunch I got to him before he disappeared out the door. I didn’t have to say a word as he quite calmly said she’d be on a leave of absence for the rest of the month. I didn’t really want to but asked if it was without pay. He just smiled and told me that she was to be paid for the whole month. I didn’t say anything and even though I knew it was wrong stood there shaking my head in a negative way as he walked out the door.

In all the ‘hubbub’ of the morning I’d managed to miss a call from the Town Supervisor. I’d gotten to know Alex from Chamber of Commerce meetings. He was the son of a former bank Trustee and had been an attorney in his father’s law firm. The township had been mired in a number of legal battles and Alex had been assigned a couple of the cases. Long story short… he became intrigued with politics and, on a whim, decided to run for the Supervisor’s position. From right after WWII until the previous year the town had been Republican controlled and had only seen two Supervisors in all that time. Running on a platform of nothing more than the words to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” he won handily. I guess you could’ve called him charismatic because he could ‘hold’ an audience… and he did to the point of winning. I’d not seen him, one on one, since he won so was curious as to why he’d want to talk with me. I was waiting for him to pick up the phone when the noon siren went off. I identified myself and then heard him say “Meet me at the ‘Rendezvous' in ten minutes.” The ‘Rendezvous’ was the restaurant run by the man who drove my first race car… Cliff (not to be confused with Cliffy) at the East end of town and not far from Town Hall. I have to admit I was intrigued by his call even though I already had too many things ‘on my platter’.

I got there before Alex and had a minute to chat with Cliff. The last time I’d seen him I told him about my involvement with Cliffy and being a part owner of a race car… again. He’d told me I was crazy but had also told me to contact him about possible sponsorship. I’d forgotten about it until Alex mentioned the restaurant so even though he had an agenda, I did too. I didn’t have time to do more than mention his off-hand offer before Alex appeared with two other men. I told Cliff I’d get back to him before leaving. Alex, although now only in his third month in office, had definitely been stirring things up around town. The previous administration had been rightfully tagged as the “Do nothing group”. By the time he assumed the title, he’d come up with a list of about thirty projects that he wanted to tackle… and one of them concerned me.

When my father sold the family homestead it was to a developer who had also bought the house next door. He was going to tear the houses down and build retail stores. However, his timing was dead wrong because it was the exact same time that the precursor to today’s “Big Box” stores had moved into the township and were developing shopping malls on the “by pass”, a road that was built to help alleviate the traffic on Main Street. As it turned out, it was a mistake that was the beginning of the end for the downtown area. The developers couldn’t get funding without signed leases for the space and had walked away from the project. The town wasn’t getting any tax money for them so took them over. But, they had to come up with a plan on what to do with them. That was where I came in.

Living in a rural area is culturally invigorating. At that lunch I found out Alex was something like a second cousin, twice removed (I’m really not sure and neither was he). Since the house had been in the family since it was built (around 1840) he didn’t think it was right to just demolish it. So, he created a small committee of people who were or had been related to the families that had lived in them to come up with ideas on what could be done with them to benefit the town. I was thrilled and thought my father would be too. The other two men were related to the family that had lived next door. I found out that during WWII, when I lived with my grandparents, one of the men had spent part of a Summer in that house and that there was a chance that we’d played together. By the time Alex had to get back to work we had a very rough idea of what he wanted from us. He waited until he was leaving to tell us that he had a verbal commitment for funding the basic refurbishment part of the project. That gave the three of us a real jolt of encouragement.

I had to go into the kitchen to catch up with Cliff. I was on the ‘high’ of the ‘saving the houses’ project with Alex and not really into the race car mode when he walked up to me and asked if $500 would help. I’d like to say that the offer ‘buckled my knees’ but it didn’t. It only took my breath away. I should be able to remember each and every word of our conversation after that but I really can’t. I do remember immediately thinking of what we would do with the money. I don’t know how long it took for me to thank him and to ask what he wanted from us. I expected him to want us to put the name of one of his restaurants on the car and when I suggested it he shook his head. While I was standing there he went to a drawer under one of the counters and pulled out some cards and handed them to me. All he wanted was for us to hand out those cards to people who came around  the car after the races were over. I asked him if that was all and he answered “Yes”.

To be continued…

'SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170b)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170b)

The station wagon and Elle (and the kids) weren’t there when I finally did arrive home. I sloughed off her not answering my call earlier thinking she’d gone shopping. But that never took more than 2 hours and her absence had me a bit worried. I collected all the trash and things for the landfill but without the station wagon I couldn’t go. With Lynda still fresh in my mind I decided to go check on my hiding place for the pictures she’d given me. The pictures I’d taken of Elle were in our clothes closet in our bedroom. Elle, who never really approved of my taking them, had told me she wanted know where I kept them. I’d asked why and she couldn’t give me an answer. So, my idea had been to hide them in plain sight knowing she’d never look at them… and then I added the pictures of Lynda. The box that held them was quite substantial. It originally contained a porcelain figurine that had been given to us by my mother. In my mind it was too good to throw away so I'd kept it. When the door was open it could readily be seen. I pulled it off the shelf and skimmed through some of the pictures of Elle. They brought back some fond memories (some of which I’ve shared here) and made me think about how to get over to Lynda’s.

Elle returned as I was coming down the stairs. She told me she’d just come from Beth’s mother’s house. My first thought was ‘why?’. As far as I knew she (nor I) had ever met the woman. Of course, there was a logical reason but I had to listen to the whole story. I’ll spare you except to say that Elle had been unsuccessful in finding one of her (our) friends to look after Kaye for the upcoming week when her mother couldn’t/wouldn’t take her and she'd be substitute teaching. In desperation, she called Beth to find out who she used to watch her baby while she was working. She offered up her mother but Elle was afraid Kaye’s shyness would be a problem and wanted to see how she’d react to the woman. Beth and her mother had a cake making side business and, as luck would have it the mother was making a cake that afternoon. When Kaye spent time with Elle’s mother the two of them would always end up baking something. So, in this case, it was a different person doing the baking but she incorporated Kaye into it and there was no problem. However, it had taken most of the afternoon. In spite of having to listen to ALL the details I was happy and was already counting on the money Elle would be making.

After dinner I asked Elle if she ever got the “word” on why Penny, the teacher who Elle was going to be filling in for, had left. Elle had originally been told that she’d gotten caught in a little lie. From what Elle told me it was a lot more than just a lie. After hearing the full story it was pretty close to being a case of fraud. When Elle had been in for Penny for that extended period of time it was supposedly for medical reasons. In a way it was but the medical condition wasn’t hers… it was that of her boyfriend. He was in the military and had been injured. Penny concocted a story about her having to have a procedure but, in reality, she wanted to be with her boyfriend when he had whatever it was that he was having done. She was originally from New Jersey, as was the boyfriend, and she’d gone back there to be with him. I’d only met her a couple of times and liked her. But, as they say, “the truth will out…” and it did, costing her her job.

Elle, like usual, was all packed up and ready to go to school ahead of time. That left me to make sure the older girls were ready when the bus arrived. Elle’s mother was good about getting to the house a little early so it allowed me to leave for work early as well. In spite of having any number of fantasies about Lynda’s pictures, driving, my thoughts were on contacting my new banking friend, Dan, and running my ideas on teller training past him. We spent a good twenty minutes discussing the concept before he suggested that I make a point of coming in to the city for the next Association meeting early enough that we could spend a couple of hours on it… one on one. His bank was located right over the top of one of the railroad terminals located in the city. He suggested I take the noon train in and it would put me in his office by no later than 3:30pm. Hanging up the phone I was really excited. It appeared that I’d tweaked the interest of a senior officer in one of the state’s largest banks… and that was exciting! The next scheduled meeting was ten days away and I couldn’t wait.

Liz, the Auditor, had not been in good health since the first of the year. As a long time employee/officer she’d accumulated a lot of unused sick days and had been rapidly going through them. She’d indicated that she’d be back, full time, on this day. That had created a problem for me in that I’d assigned Sandy, the woman I’d originally hired on a temporary basis to fill in for J J’s secretary, Lynn, to work with Laura who was the assistant to Liz until Liz came back. Now she was due back which meant I’d have to let her go. Sandy had been pestering me for a full time position and in spite of my empathy towards her and her personal situation, (single mother, no child support), there wasn’t one available. In discussing the situation with Hobie he’d told me to hold off on Sandy. He’d worked with Liz for many years and indicated that he had a feeling Liz wasn’t really ready to be back to full time work… in spite of what she’d professed. Regardless of when, it was going to be hard to tell Sandy. When I got off the phone with Dan I looked for Liz but only saw Laura and Sandy. I hated putting things off and had pretty much steeled myself for the “talk” with Sandy. I went and asked where Liz was and was told she’d be in around mid morning. Technically, Liz reported to the Board of Trustees so I had no ‘standing’ with her. As the personnel officer I had to support her needs and that was all. The situation left me feeling very uncomfortable. I’d gone from a “high” (the chat with Dan) to a “low”, thinking of dealing with Sandy.

I had Trish check just how much ‘“sick time” was left for Liz to use as I wanted to make sure she was aware of it. When Trish told me she had no more accumulated time it made sense why she’d said she’d be back on this day… but, was she? Now I had another problem… telling an officer of the bank that she was now on unpaid status for any future absence. My relationship to the woman was neutral, as it should’ve been. But, I’d had a feeling right from the time I assumed the responsibilities of personnel officer that Liz was “milking the system”. She ran a two person department and there was no one to do a checks and balance of her records. I’d thought I was uncomfortable with Sandy’s situation but this was becoming almost untenable. I made a point of having Joanie, Trish and Bret keep their eyes open for when Liz appeared. I wanted to get to her before she got settled in. I remember taking a deep breath and trying to concentrate on a report that was sitting on my desk.

To be continued…

"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170a)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170a)

Mae had asked if we could start at 8:30am to give her a little more money. It didn’t matter to me since getting out of there by noon was my goal. It sounds trite but the best way to describe her that morning was “bright eyed and bushy tailed”. She was really anxious to get something accomplished and her enthusiasm rubbed off on me. We carefully went through a couple of crates and, after showing her how to identify items that just might be valuable, turned her loose. There was no humidity in the cellar and we soon found ourselves to be thirsty. The coffee break room was just around the corner and Mae knew how to brew a pot of coffee on the bank’s equipment. While she did that I went over to the luncheonette to get a couple of sweet buns. As I was paying for them I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked back and it was Lynda.

About the last person I expected to find in town, on a Saturday, was Lynda. She quickly explained that the “junior” brokers in the office were required to take training courses to prepare them to take a test to become certified or whatever it was called. She’d been asked to come in to “baby sit” the group as both Bill and Stan were tied up. She’d been dispatched to get sandwiches for them so they wouldn’t have to take time out for lunch and could get done early. She asked why I was in town as well and after explaining my situation she told me that her group was due to finish up around 2pm. She, back to being ever so coy, asked if I wanted to stick around and visit with her after the others left. I remember taking a deep breath and telling her I’d have to see how the rest of my project was progressing and I’d call her, one way or the other. Even though it normally only took a few minutes to cross the street to get to the bank I stood on the corner for a couple of light changes weighing the offer.

Back in the cellar I was pleasantly surprised to see Mae had gone through a couple of crates while I was gone and had set them aside to be taken out to be burned. She’d also polished off half a pot of coffee. We sat in the break room for a few minutes wolfing down the buns. It had been in the back of my mind to ask what her work aspirations were. She’d shown she was extremely bright and had a good quick mind. I’d hoped for a ‘snappy' answer but she sat back on the couch and sort of stared up at the ceiling. I wasn’t expecting the answer I got but, after having some time to think about it, it made sense. She, quite calmly stated she just wanted to be able to provide a good, stable life for her family. I was expecting an answer along the lines of “I want to be a branch manager.” But, before I could get her to expand on her answer, she started telling me about her early life and how her father had been killed in WWII and how her mother never really accepted his death. She and her siblings lived with relatives until she met the man who married her at age 17 and that wasn’t much different. I felt somewhat uncomfortable listening to her relate what it had been like so, abruptly, told her we had to get back to work. However, as I stated above, with a little time to assimilate all that she’d shared, her answer made sense. It told me that she didn’t really have a plan.

When the noon siren went off I asked if she wanted to stay a little longer. We’d accomplished what I’d set out to do and a little more. Between the two of us we’d cleared the space I wanted but if we went another three or so feet we could have the partition wall clear. It would allow us to move some of the stuff from the middle storage area out of the way to allow us to, hopefully, get to the back. So, we started in again  but ran into crates that I couldn’t make a determination of just what they held. That was a ‘sign’ that it was time to quit. I know it was after 1pm. As we went back upstairs I was debating with myself weather to stay until 2pm and meet up with Lynda. A quick calculation told me if I was on my way home by 2:30pm or so I could still get my Saturday chores done before dark. After thanking Mae and letting her out the door I headed for my desk.

I could tell by the tone of her voice that Lynda was excited that I’d called. I gave her the phone number for a direct connection to my desk so she could call when all the people were out of the broker’s office. That’s when I took some time to think about my participation on the State Association’s Personnel Management Committee. I’d jotted down some ideas about teller training that I felt could benefit banks of all sizes. In looking at what I’d written it came to me that the concept could possibly be broadened. After the last meeting in the city my new friend, Dan, and I had talked about hiring practices and I’d been impressed with his thought process. I decided to contact him during the week to run my ideas about training past him, hoping for some encouragement. New to the committee and being from one of the medium to smaller sized banks, I was a bit intimidated and reluctant to speak up. It was my thought, if Dan thought my ideas had merit, that he’d put them forth at an upcoming meeting. I was “psyched” and when the phone rang it startled me.

“The coast is clear…”, or something close to it was what I heard from Lynda when I picked up the receiver. I’d tried to call Elle around the time Mae left but got no answer. Before heading to see Lynda I tried again but there was still no answer. In a way that was good because Elle couldn’t deny that I’d called. Lynda was waiting at the door for me. When we’d been at the luncheonette I couldn’t tell what she was wearing as she had on a long coat. It was a pleasant surprise to see her wearing slacks. As soon as I saw that my first thought was to hope for a VPL. From what she’d previously told me I pretty much knew she would be wearing bikini panties but I still wanted to see a VPL. It was a little awkward for me at first since she was the one who initiated the idea of meeting. However, she broke the impasse when she asked what I’d done with the pictures she’d given me. When I assured her they were safe from prying eyes she hit me with an unbelievable question… would I like to see more?

That was like asking a person who was out in the desert in the noonday sun if he’d like some water. I have no idea what the expression on my face was but I certainly can imagine it. The hardest part was in giving her an answer that didn’t make me look like a fool. Specific words are long gone but what I do remember was trying to be calm when telling her I’d really like that. I also remember her smile as I spoke. With the smile still on her face she said the only way I could do it was to come to her house. That dimmed some of the excitement of the offer… but not all. I couldn’t give her a commitment telling her that I’d try to work something out. I remember her making some sort of comment as I did indicating that the pictures were there for me any time I wanted to see them. I didn’t get the VPL I’d hoped for but what I did get was far better. Now it was up to me to follow up on it.

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169z)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169z)

Having just experienced what it was like getting supper ready for three kids and an infant, Elle chose to wait until around 7:30pm or so before making the call to Beth. Only it wasn’t Beth who picked up the phone… it was Cliffy. Beth wasn’t there but he told Elle that he wanted to speak to me as long as he was on the line. I knew what he wanted… the money he’d requested/demanded at the meeting he’d called just after returning from Daytona. Before he could say anything I told him he’d have the $200 I’d promised on Saturday, the deadline date for all of the team to get their money in. I don’t remember if he acknowledged what I’d said but I do remember him saying that he’d made a number of telephone calls to find out what the cylinder heads we’d gotten from C J and his father were worth. There were only two other race teams running Ford motors at the time and neither had any information for him. It seemed like everybody who’d been running Ford equipment had “bailed’ and were now running Chevys so there were a lot of Ford parts up for sale. Cliffy knew I had a relationship with “Seeg”, C J’s father, and suggested that I go see him to negotiate a price. We both knew they had cost over $500 when they got them new so Cliffy wanted me to go negotiate a reasonable price… like the $200 I’d pledged.  I was amenable to that so told him I’d drive up to see “Seeg” on my lunch break.

Cliffy went on that Alan had given him $100 and would have more come Saturday. Dick, who was Cliffy’s best friend, hadn’t come up with any money as he’d had to pay cash for his seed potatoes for his farm but was “good” for his share. Joe had called to say he was “out”. He was now living just outside the city and going through his welding apprenticeship and didn’t have the time for the race car. Cliffy told me he’d paid his father over $300 on the outstanding amount we’d run up during the previous season. A quick count in my mind told me he’d gotten over $600 including my promised money. That left Buster… and just the thought of that had me shaking my head. So, I asked what he was going to do. There was silence for a few seconds before I heard him meekly ask if there wasn’t a way for me to come up with some more money. My head told me “NO!” but my love of racing wouldn’t let me say the word out loud. There was a period of silence on my part before I uttered the fateful words… “I’ll work on it…”. But I did ask if any of the people we owed money to were really desperate for what we owed. Cliffy said the tire guy had paid our outstanding tire bill out of his own pocket and we owed him almost $300. He said his plan was to get Alan’s money on the weekend and take it to him as a gesture of good faith. Cliffy reminded me that we needed to keep Mack, the tire guy, happy so we’d be able to get the “pick of the lot” when the new tires for the season came in. It made sense and had me really thinking hard about what to do. I closed by telling him I’d go see “Seeg” the next day about the heads.

Beth called around 9pm. The story on Penny was that she was chronically late and had been caught lying about a classroom incident. She told Elle she liked her but that she was ‘immature”.  Elle was to teach the class until a permanent teacher could be hired and when she asked Beth if they had anyone to interview she said they didn’t. Elle and I ended up talking about who was going to watch Kaye, our youngest, on the days her mother couldn’t/wouldn’t. She didn’t have an answer but said she had the weekend to work on it. An immediate selfish thought of mine was with that extra money coming in for possibly a week or two I could ’skim’ a little from my pay to put towards the race car.

At work I mentioned to Bret that I was going up to “Seeg’s” farm to pay him for the cylinder heads. I knew it would get his attention because C J was his friend and favorite racer. It had about killed him that he couldn’t get to the track where C J and Cliffy raced the past season. He told me that C J was building a brand new race car for the upcoming season and that it was  going to be “radical”. I asked him what that meant and he shrugged his shoulders. All he would tell me that they weren’t letting anyone see it. I asked if that included him and he nodded his head in an affirmative way. That puzzled me, as close as Bret and C J were. I withdrew $200 before leaving the bank. It took about 15 minutes to make it to the farm. I knocked on the door and C J’s mother answered and took me to the kitchen. “Seeg” was eating his lunch and invited me to join him but I didn’t have a lot of time so declined. Still standing, I told him we (the race car team) wanted to pay for the heads. I remember him looking up and having a surprised look on his face. Then he laughed following that up with something about not ever expecting to get paid for them. I didn’t have time to ‘digest’ what that inferred and asked, point blank, how much he wanted for them. I swear he didn’t hesitate at all when he asked how much I’d brought. I had two $100 bills rolled up in my pocket and immediately reached in to get it. I told him what I had and he responded “Sold!” and reached out his hand. I deposited the money in his hand and then stood there not believing the situation. I’d lay in bed that morning going over a whole ‘pitch’ to make to him to get him to accept the $200. He spread the bills on the table and then shook my hand. I wanted to say “Thank you” but it seemed awkward. So, I told him I had to get back to work and started backing away. As I did I told him I’d heard that the team was building a new car. All he did was to smile as I continued towards the door. Driving back to work all I could think was that it had been a ‘win’ for us to start the year off.

Mae caught up with me soon after getting back to the bank. Between the weather and other interruptions she hadn’t earned very much from the cellar project and wanted to know if we could work the next morning (Saturday). Truthfully, I’d lost some of the enthusiasm I’d had when we started. I hesitated a bit and then, with the subject of the race car fresh on my mind, told her we could. Even though it was two and a half months until opening night and there wasn’t a lot of work to do on the car to prepare for the season, there would be some and it would probably entail working on Saturdays. I decided to ‘bite the bullet’ and tackle the cellar right away. I went down the stairs to look at it again and to formulate a plan of attack. The wooden cabinets were obvious but working on them wouldn’t free up any space. I moved some of the accessible crates to take a cursory peek in some of the ones stacked against the wall. Their  contents appeared to be disposable so decided we’d tackle that. Returning to my desk I set a goal of creating at least an open space of about six feet. I felt by doing that I could show Hobie we were continuing to make progress. Onward!(106)

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169y)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169y)

According to my Day Timer, the rest of the week, at work, was pretty much normal. Mae and I spent some time in the cellar and worked mostly on getting at the stuff that had been stuffed behind the big desk that had been moved. I’d gotten a ’shot across the bow’ about the 100 year anniversary that would be coming up in 1972 from Bert, the president. In seeing some of the things I’d come across in the clean-up project I decided to start putting some  that might be useful aside. When Mae asked me about it she mentioned that some of the things she’d seen in the old wooden file cabinet should be looked at. We decided that would be the next Saturday project. Other than that the only thing I accomplished was to try set my schedule for meetings for March. Some of the regular monthly meetings had been cancelled because of the weather and a couple of them had been rescheduled.

One of those was the new group consisting of the four Savings Banks headquartered in the county. It was put together to make sure that when one of them wanted to open a branch it wouldn’t take business away from other members of the group. The ultimate goal was to thwart the influx of city based banks and also to monitor very aggressive Savings and Loan Associations. There had been one meeting which was more to feel each other out and to share basic branching philosophies. In truth, to me it had been pretty much a waste of time since my bank was the only one who had a branch and who had preliminary plans for another. It had been held during working hours and there had been a suggestion that the next one be dinner meeting. I didn’t like that idea… at all… but, as a junior officer, I had probably the least amount of influence in a decision like that. When I called to find out when and where the next meeting was to be held I was pleasantly surprised to find it would be held at a fairly famous restaurant. It had hosted a number of wedding receptions for celebrities and I’d been taken there once by my grandparents to celebrate one of their anniversaries. Ironically, it was in the same village where Lynda lived. However, the date had yet to be determined.

The one assignment that I looked forward to attending was on the State Banking Association’s Committee on Personnel Management. Even though the meetings were held in the city I felt the time expended to get there and back was worthwhile. I’d been placed on a newly formed sub-committee within the group to explore all aspects of employee training. Even though the full committee only met every other month, to get this sub-committee “up to speed”, it was decided  that they would meet monthly. It was scheduled for the last Thursday of the month and, by then, I was ready for a respite from the travails of the month of February. Because about half the members were coming long distances the association reserved a bank of rooms at a convenient hotel to the Association offices. I’d become somewhat friendly with a few of the other members and contacted them about getting together the night before and hoped it wouldn’t turn out like the previous one. They assured me it would be a “working meeting” and, to prove a point, a couple of them put together some materials for preliminary discussion and forwarded them on. Elle was not happy when I’d go to the city leaving her alone, especially with the house next door being vacant but I wasn’t to be deterred.

There were two choices to get to the city… drive or by train. February had been unmerciful as far as snow and ice but, according to my father (the amateur weather man) there was none in the forecast so I elected to drive. I hated the trip but it actually saved a couple of hours time. I checked in around five pm and found three other committee members (out of 15) already there. Those who worked in the city expected to get there before six and a reservation had been made for dinner. I’d perused to materials and had an idea where the sub-committee was headed… and liked it. As promised, it was a working meeting and by the time we broke up a rough outline had been drawn up. There were only three members who hadn’t been there so the chairman felt we had made a lot of progress and wouldn’t have much, if any, resistance at the full meeting in the morning. I got to sit next to a man (Dan) who’s brother owned a Summer cottage in the town right next to where I lived and he and his wife visited regularly. Even though it was only February, we started making plans to get together come the Summer. He was a little older than me but his wife was the same age as Elle and their kids were similar in age to ours. If for no other reason, coming in early to the meeting had produced something of personal value.

I won’t bore you with the details of the full meeting other than to say it was VERY productive. However, when it broke up and the wait staff came in to clear up the residual mess Dan and I continued to talk. I’d run some things by him concerning hiring practices and he was explaining how he and his bank handled them. All of a sudden he grabbed my arm and told me too look over my shoulder. I did and I saw this waitress all tangled up in one of those tray holders. Wearing a black uniform it wasn’t all that hard to discern the white of her panties as she tried to get back to her feet. We looked for about ten seconds (maybe more… ) before Dan went over to assist her. For some reason I just stood there watching. He was back quickly but as he approached, in somewhat of a whisper, he asked if I got a “look”? My answer was a smile and his response to it was also a smile. Then he made an interesting comment… “You always have to keep your eyes open…”. I didn’t really pick up on it right then and there but on my drive home it came back to me. Maybe he was a voyeur like me.

The traffic was better than I expected and I arrived home a little after 5pm. I had a brief thought about stopping at the bank but it passed quickly. There was a car that I thought I recognized parked in front of the garage door where I parked my car. That usually annoyed me but, I was in a good mood as I walked in to the kitchen. As soon as I did I recognized Penny, the teacher Elle had subbed for back in January. That was why the car had looked familiar. Upon seeing me she got up and headed for the door. I barely got in a “hello” before she was on her way down the path. Elle sort of apologized for her telling me that she’d come to go over some things about kids in her class. That didn’t make any sense since it had been a month since Elle had taught her class. But, Elle went on that Penny was leaving the school and the next day was her last day. I really didn’t know much about her but in the few times our paths had crossed she seemed to be a nice person. However, Bill, the principal, had decided she wasn’t performing to his liking and since her contract was only provisional she was subject to termination, at will. Listening to Elle I was starting to put things together and figured that Elle was going to be substituting some more. I listened to her complain about how Bill operated the school, keeping my mouth shut, until the kids started fussing about being hungry. When she finally stopped talking I suggested that she call Beth, Cliffy’s wife, who was the secretary at that school, and get the “word”.

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169x)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169x)

There she was again… big fur hat and long fur coat… but with a different look on her face. I think the only word I uttered was “Yes…”, with a question mark. I really don’t remember what she said but I let her in. To be absolutely truthful I really wanted to know why she’d come back. I thought I’d made it clear that I (we) wasn’t going to do her bidding. But, in what I called ‘city talk’ ( fast, rapid fire), she pleaded with me for help. She’d gone to Wally’s place and, reluctantly, paid for a room. She said as soon as she walked in she knew it was a mistake. But, it was when she walked down the hall to the bathroom and closed the door she knew she couldn’t stay there… some sort of furry thing ran across the floor. She went on that she ran back to the room, put on her coat and hat and ran down the stairs to her car. She then told me she was resigned to driving back to the city even though she hated to drive at night. Something made her look at the gas gauge and saw it was almost empty. After driving for about fifteen minutes and not finding an open gas station she panicked, turned around and ended up back at my house.

There were two things going through my mind right then… I knew she was going to want to stay with us and… was I going to be cruel enough to turn her down? When Elle appeared in the doorway of the hall she scared me. She, of course, saw Matty and when she did she walked into the kitchen and asked what was going on. She was wearing her bathrobe that didn’t have a sash and was holding the front together as she listened to Matty repeat what she’d just told me. Knowing what to look for I could see a bit of Elle's plastic pants that covered her 'package' and wondered if Matty would notice. I just knew Elle would offer her a bed but before she could Matty proposed that all she’d need was a couch. For the next minute or so they had a verbal jousting match with me finally interjecting that Matty was satisfied with the couch and all Elle had to do was get her a pillow and a blanket. Matty then said she could use her coat to cover herself but did agree to accept a pillow. I wasn’t happy about it knowing that Matty had ‘won’ and it would come back to haunt me (us) in the future. While Elle was getting the pillow I decided to head up the stairs and try to get some sleep.

I don’t know what time it was when Elle came to bed but I do know I was awake. At 7am I was on my way down the stairs to take a shower when I heard Matty on the phone. I stopped and listened. I gathered she was talking to her sister. She’d told us her sister was taking care of her kids and the part of the conversation I heard had to do with getting them ready for school. To get to the bathroom and the shower I had to walk past her and I tried to ignore her as best I could. When I finished up she was in the kitchen and looking into a cabinet. I didn’t care how rich she was I was offended that she had the nerve to just go through our things without asking. I stopped and started towards her and when she saw me I remember her putting both her hands up. It was almost like she was saying “OK, you caught me”. I heard her say something like “I’m sorry but I’ve got to have my coffee.” I wanted to scream at her… but I didn’t. I actually can’t believe, after all these years, that I didn’t. I’m not sure what I said and it might’ve been to tell her neither of us drank coffee. In any case she apologized again and it was when Elle appeared with the kids that I headed back upstairs to get dressed for work. After I did I didn’t stop to eat any breakfast and just put on my coat and headed out the door. It was an 'escape'.

When I got home that night Elle greeted me with a totally unexpected surprise. She’d seen the headlights in the driveway and was waiting for me at the door. Of course she knew I was going to ask her about Matty and as I opened the door she had her index finger across her lips. She then took me by the hand, with my overcoat still on, and led me to the bathroom where she hiked up her skirt and, with her panties still on, sat on the toilet. Never one to turn down an opportunity to get a wet ‘feel’, promptly went to my knees  and inserted my hand between her legs. It had been quite a while since I’d had that presented to me and I took full advantage of it. As soon as I started to speak her finger went right to her lips. The warm wetness on the satin finish of the panties was almost too much for me and as I went to stand up almost came. The only thing Elle did before coming back out into the kitchen was to dab her crotch with a wash cloth but she did leave the panties on.

Needless to say I was now in her ‘grasp’ and, after shedding my coat and jacket, followed her over to the stove. I was waiting for her to speak but all she did was to busy herself with pan frying a cube steak, a favorite of mine. That told me that whatever it was she was going to be telling me was certainly going to be interesting. I had to wait until she had my dinner on a plate and she, standing at the counter as I sat at the table, told me I wasn’t to interrupt her. By then I’d forgotten about Matty so when she started by saying that she’d had a good conversation with the woman before she left. I was OK with that but still not happy with her. Elle went on that in spite of the way she’d presented herself to me (us) she really was a nice person and that if I’d give her a chance she’d prove it. In spite of being upper middle class growing up and having a somewhat ‘easy’ upbringing, she’d been having a hard time since the divorce. Her father had never approved of the marriage and had been one of the reasons for her getting the divorce. She still hadn’t fully accepted it and had an ongoing conflict with her father.

I’d heard enough by then and cut Elle off telling her all that stuff might be true but she didn’t have the right to interject herself into our lives. Elle agreed but asked to continue with her observation of Matty. What could I do but to acquiesce. She finished up by saying that Matty seemed sincere when she apologized to her, promising that she would be “a different person” the next time we saw her. The way she acted was because she was so upset with her father for making her come out to look at the damage. Elle said Matty realized that she’d taken her frustrations out on us and had acted in a selfish manner. I heard what Elle was saying but reserved judgement for the future. I still saw the potential for problems in the not to distant future.

To put an end to this particular ’thread’; Tony came and cut the limb up and carted to remnants away and Jonesie started in fixing the windows and window frames that weekend. I’ll also admit that, with Elle’s strong urging, I did make the calls to Matty on the progress of both projects. Sometime the following week we received a package in the mail… a carton of oranges and grapefruit from Florida. The card read something like “To the start of a good friendship…” It was from the whole family. I could only hope so but…

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169w)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169w)

Timing is everything in life. We’d just started to eat when there was a knock on the kitchen door. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. I knew it was Jonesie. He had a full time job and did the handyman stuff at night and on weekends. He had a flashlight and I added my big one as we headed to next door. He was somewhat of a character and I’d become used to him and knew when he was kidding and when he wasn’t. When he saw the tree limb against the house he made a remark about needing a crane. I knew he was kidding but Matty didn’t. She made a comment about her father saying he’d have a heart attack when she had to tell him. It took Jonesie a minute or two to convince Matty that he was only kidding. He wasn’t kidding when he said she’d have to have someone with tree trimming equipment to get it off the house. He was able to get under the limbs to see the damage to the windows and window frames. Then, after seeing the inside damage, told Matty that he’d get it done as soon as the tree was removed. That left her with trying to find someone to do it. She asked Jonesie who he would use and he didn’t have a name to give her. Then she asked me…

One of my father’s friends had a son who’d recently gotten out of the Army. He hadn’t been able to hold a job for more than a week or two and was doing a little bit of any and everything. My father asked me to keep him in mind for any kind of “off the wall” job and I’d gotten him a job to clean up the vacant lot next to the church. I knew his father had a gas powered chain saw so I said I’d give him a call in the morning .That wasn’t good enough for her so, hoping to get rid of her, took her back to our house and gave Tony a call. I really didn’t think he’d be home and told Matty so but she insisted. Tony’s mother answered and surprised me saying he was right there. All I was hoping for was a “Yes..”  and that he’d do it but… he wanted to see it before committing himself and said he’d be right over. Jonesie had headed home when we went back to my house. I’d forgotten that neither Matty nor I had finished eating and Elle asked if we were still interested. We had to do something while waiting for Tony so I resigned myself to eating a warmed up meal… not my favorite thing.

Tony was what we called a “wise guy”, always having a quick, smart assed comment on just about everything. He was about five years younger than me and I barely knew him. The only reason I suggested him was because of my father. When I introduced him to Matty I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be. I have to hand it to her in that she was “all business” in that after he’d gone to look at the tree she wanted to know when he could do it and how much it would cost. I remember him hesitating a bit but when Matty opened her pocket book he said he’d do it in the morning and would also haul the debris away all for $20. She proceeded to pull a wallet from her bag and gave him a $20 bill. Then she looked at me as if to say… “he better do it!” as he walked out the door. It was now close to 8pm and the reason I remembered was that Elle had sent the kids upstairs to get ready for bed and Matty asked why they went to bed so early. Elle’s answer was to reference that the schools were reopening in the morning. The girls had ‘milked’ the weather situation to the limit and had stayed up way past their normal bedtimes. I remember Matty making an off hand comment about how strict Elle was and it got me to wondering just what her kids were like and how ours would react to them when they came for the Summer.

With everything ’settled’ I had hoped Matty would get up and go. But, she didn’t. She wanted to know where the nearest motel was located which brought forth a bit of a chuckle from me. The township we lived in had passed a moratorium on motels back in the late 50’s. That meant there weren’t really that many to choose from and added to that was that there were only two that were open during the Winter. Never shy about asking for help, she wanted me to call to see if either of them had a room available. I looked at Elle and rolled my eyes. My thoughts weren’t for the current moment but was on the future when she and the rest of the family would be living there. I was about to tell Matty what was on my mind at that point when Elle volunteered to make a call to the larger motel. I had to bite my tongue but vowed to myself to give Elle a piece of my mind after Matty was gone. I didn’t say a word while Elle made the call and I secretly smiled when I heard her ask if the motel knew of any vacancies. When she returned to tell Matty it didn’t seem to deter her at all. ”There has to be someplace I can stay!” was basically what I heard. The only place left was the Lodge owed and run by the president of the school board, Wally, and when I thought about it I found it immediately amusing. I got up and made the call. When I identified myself he asked if I was going to run for the board in June. So, I had to chat about that before I got to ask about a room. Other than on Summer weekends there were always rooms available as no one wanted to stay in a run down old mansion. I told him he’d have a visitor in just a few minutes. Returning to the kitchen with the news I thought our involvement with her was over, at least for the time being. But, no… she wasn’t done yet as she then asked for a piece of paper so she could write down some telephone numbers. When done she handed it to me and, almost like giving an order, said she’d appreciate a call when we observed the different phases of the repairs being completed. That’s when I lost it.

I’d thought back to how involved we’d become when Sabrina (Lisa) had been the first to occupy that house after Sophie, the owner when we bought our house, had lost it to a tax sale. With Sabrina there had been some residual (panty) benefits but, standing there looking at this woman I could see none. I told her that Elle and I had been waiting for the house to be sold hoping for permanent neighbors. I told her that we’d both lived in the community since we were kids and had to put up with part time summer residents and how they “used” our parents to handle various “nuisance” chores that they couldn’t do because they were too busy/involved in their permanent community. I told her that we just were not going to do it. I told her that we’d be good, quiet neighbors and wouldn’t bother them but we were not going to be “slaves” and do their bidding. The look on Matty’s face was one of disbelief. It made her finally stand up and to head for the door… and without saying a word. Elle wouldn’t speak to me after she left and headed upstairs to bed. I was so worked up there was no way I could’ve slept. But, sitting back in my reclining chair I was proud of myself for speaking up. I ended up thinking of a few more things I could’ve added.

I was watching the TV when I saw headlights coming up the driveway. It was now after 10pm and I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out who it could be. As the headlights went out I saw the dome light in the car come on and thought I saw a short female get out. Within seconds there was a knock at the back door… it was Matty.

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169v)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169v)

Elle was closer to her than I was and got to her before I did. The opening in the hedge hadn’t been trimmed since Bill (the school principal) and his wife, Phyllis had moved from the house during the Summer. The woman seemed to have been engulfed by the hedge as she forced her way through. Walking up to them it was almost impossible to know what she looked like or how big she was. I heard her tell Elle that she was the person that had been called about the damage to the house. When I identified myself she apologized for seeming to have been “difficult” on the phone explaining that she really didn’t know that much about her father’s purchase of the house. There wasn’t much for me to say so I just listened. She went on that after calling her siblings she was designated to be the one to come take a look and now she was there but the keys didn’t work. She was talking so fast it was hard to grasp what she was saying or to get a word in. When she finally shut up I told her that we didn’t have a key and that if there was one the realtor who had brokered the sale would be the one to talk to. I started to walk away as it was then about 10am and I’d told Bret that I’d be to work around 11am or so and had to get cleaned up and dressed. As I started towards the kitchen door I heard the woman ask Elle if it would be possible to use our bathroom.

She was right on my heels as I reached the patio. I stopped to take off my boots and as I did she reached for the door handle asking where the bathroom was. I knew the few minutes she’d take wouldn’t interfere with my taking a shower as I still had to get out of my work clothes. Elle was there and I asked if she’d gotten any information from her. As I did she looked up at the window to the bathroom and let out a cry… “OH NO!” Then she told me that when she’d come downstairs to shower earlier she’d just stripped off her “package” and put it in the sink. I immediately knew why she was upset. There, for the woman to see, was a soggy mass of sanitary pads and cotton panties encased by a pair of plastic pants. Elle was beside herself and within seconds had gone inside. I knew there was nothing she could do about the wet mess and wondered where she was going. I soon followed but didn’t see Elle. I looked around and finally went to the bottom of the stairs and quietly called her. She stuck her head out of our bedroom and made a ‘shushing’ motion across her lips and then disappeared. That left me to face the woman. I waited for what seemed like a long time for her to reappear. I was getting concerned about the time because I had a lot to do to get ready for work. I took a deep breath and gently knocked on the bathroom door only to get a quiet apology. There was nothing more I could do at that point but wait.

If I were to guess it would be to say she was in there for over ten minutes. We all joke about what women do when they go to the ladies room and this was just such an example. When she stepped out she still had on both her big fur hat and also her long fur coat. I admit it seemed strange, especially knowing how small our bathroom was. But, my focus was on getting in the shower so all I did was to give the woman, Matty, directions to the realtors office and escorted her to the door. Walking into the bathroom I saw Elle’s soggy mass lying in the bowl of the sink. I couldn’t even begin to think of what the woman must’ve thought when she saw it. I called to Elle that she was gone and by the time I had stripped off my clothes she was there looking at the sink. I remember feeling sorry for her but didn’t say anything as she pulled it out and headed for the basement.

I ended up getting to the bank later than I’d wanted. Bret was a bit upset but I knew he’d get over it. He was supposed to do something for/with his mother. Trish and I had both chatted about how his mother seemed to have control over him, even more than his wife did. In any case, I spent most of the rest of the day handling minor problems and answering two days worth of mail. Getting up at 5am, I had NO desire to tackle anything in the cellar and looked forward to getting home and being with the kids. I’d given no thought to the lady from next door all day… until I was on my way home. By the time I arrived I pretty much knew the new neighbors, whoever they might be, would be drawing upon us for all kinds of favors. Growing up and being all year round residents, the Summer neighbors were forever calling upon both Elle’s parents and mine to look after their homes during the Winters among other things. Only just having met Matty, I could see it coming. They were “city people” who knew little or nothing about home maintenance and would be ‘leaning’ on me to guide them.

There was an unfamiliar car in front of the garage on the side where I parked my car. It was a big Lincoln Continental. I didn’t really know anybody with a car like that so when I walked in the house and saw Matty all I could think of was that it was going to be interesting living next door to people like this, even if it was only for a few months of the year. This time though, the fur hat and coat were off and I could see a pudgy woman in her mid to late 30’s. My first reaction was to think that if she lost 10 to 15 pounds she might be more attractive. She was sitting at the kitchen table and jumped up as soon as she saw me enter. Both she and Elle started talking at the same time and I remember putting my hand up to shut them both up. I chose Elle to speak first because I knew I’d be able to understand her. (Matty talked so fast her words ran together.) Long story, somewhat short, was Matty had to get a locksmith to pick the lock to get in and then had to wait until a new lock was installed. Once that happened she needed a phone to call the handyman I’d recommended, Jonesie and then, Elle feeling sorry for her sitting in her car invited her to stay until he showed up. They were still waiting. I was behind Matty as Elle told me this and I, with my eyes, gave a signal to Elle that I really wanted no part of it. But, the ‘damage’ had been done as Elle had invited her to stay for supper. I’m still shaking my head! I wanted to wring Elle’s neck.

As Elle prepared for supper I tried to be nice… but it was hard, trying to get some background information about the different members of her family. Elle shooed us to the living room which gave me a better look at the woman. About 5’4’’, with her hair obviously done professionally, she was wearing slacks that didn’t appear to fit. Remembering the fur coat and seeing the hair the ‘dumpy’ pants didn’t jibe. In any case she was divorced with two kids. She’d been a professional woman but after the divorce didn’t need/want to work. I remember thinking how nice that must be. She had both a boy and a girl with the boy 10 and the girl 12. Sitting there listening to her I wondered how that would work out with our kids come summer. By then Elle was calling us to the table. Because she was a ‘guest’, we ended up eating at the real dining room table with all three of our kids present. The one thing I remember clearly about that meal was the comment she made about our kids eating with us… “Oh… you let them join you at dinner?”

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169u)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169u)

Then she started asking questions about him that told me she wasn’t too ‘sold’ on turning a key over to a stranger. That puzzled me because the house was empty and there was nothing at risk. Vowing not to let myself involved any more that I already was I suggested that it would be best if she or a member of the family come and take a look. The tone of her voice changed almost immediately and I won’t go so far as to say she was pleading with me but… However, I wanted to call the bank to see how they’d made out for the day so repeated my suggestion of having a member of the family come and make the decision on just what to do.

The call to the bank was interesting, to say the least. To start with they hadn’t lost electric power and they had opened on time. Even though the bank was only ten miles West of where I lived they hadn’t had all that much icing and Trish’s boyfriend, Chaz, had come in early and spread rock salt on the parking lot so that wasn’t a problem. I talked with Bret, who lived within walking distance, who told me he’d fallen while on his way in but was OK. Almost all the tellers had made it to work including Mae who lived about 20 plus miles to the West. That told me the storm had been centered to the Northeast and probably wreaked havoc in New England. When I told him we were without electricity and had been for over 24 hours he was surprised.

By the time it was dark my mother was insisting that we come and stay with them. It wasn’t a problem for the kids as Elle’s mother had a supply of their things at her house. The problem was Elle. Knowing that she’d have the use of a toilet because of my parents having a generator, hadn’t brought any ‘supplies’ when we left our house. Both my mother and Elle’s mother no longer had to worry about having a ‘period’ so that meant there were no sanitary pads for her to use. She was sure that there were some of her ‘ratty’ Carter’s cotton Spanky Pants in her old dresser over at her parents house but what was also missing to make up a ‘package’ were the plastic panties. As this was unfolding Elle’s father showed up. I was hoping he had some information regarding progress at the sub-station but he had nothing. We ended up having soup for our meal as my father had a separate freezer and each Fall would cook up large batches of Manhattan clam chowder and his own concoction of chili con-carne. The kids wanted no part of that so soup it was. I was hoping for the lights to miraculously come on but they didn’t so I told Elle I’d make a trip home to get the necessary things for her night time ‘package’. In leaving, Elle’s father said the roads were clear which was good to hear.

As I pulled up to the stop sign by the Catholic Church I saw lights start to flicker on and off at the house right across the main road. I remember sitting there for a bit, waiting for the lights to stay on. There was literally no moving traffic so I just sat there and finally I saw the lights remain on. I decided to turn around and head back to my parents house. I didn’t get far before I didn’t see house lights any more. I was puzzled at first and didn’t know what to do. Then, I remembered that the substation problem wasn't only one. Fallen trees, tree limbs and branches was the other… and the electric company wouldn’t know where they were until they had had the first part fixed. I surmised that the area where my parents lived had a tree limb problem so turned around again and got home to find all the houses on our street with their lights shining. Once inside I wasn’t expecting the house to be that cold. I could tell the oil burner wasn’t running and remembered that after a power outage I’d have to manually reset everything to get it started. That only took a minute or so and as I was climbing the stairs it came to me that it would take quite a while for the temperature in the house to reach a relatively comfortable level. That’s when I called my father and explained why I hadn’t come back and told him it would probably be best for the kids to stay with them for the night but I told him I wanted to come back to my own house. He agreed and I headed back to get Elle. Elle’s parents had accepted the invitation to stay with my parents so with Elle and I heading back to our house it meant everybody had a bed to sleep in.

It was only a few degrees above 50 inside the house when Elle and I got home. The oil burner was running and the radiators were hot. However, touching anything, walls, counters, furniture were downright cold. Neither of us drank coffee or tea so the only thing we could think of to make was hot chocolate. I don’t think I’d ever drunk that much hot chocolate in such a short period of time. When we finally headed upstairs the temperature had risen into the higher fifties. We decided to leave our clothes on but Elle needed to put on her “package”. After doing that and putting her clothes back on she climbed into bed. We held on to each other and that helped make us warmer. Then we finally fell asleep.. We forgot to set the alarm for Elle’s first bathroom visit and it was my hand feeling her ‘bottom’ that woke me up. It was too late and she and she was wet. She didn’t want to get up and decided to stay as she was. I, myself, was actually too warm so shed my flannel shirt and climbed back in. Before falling back asleep I cussed myself for not checking what the temperature was.

All that hot chocolate had to go somewhere… and a fair amount ended up in our bed. It was enough to wake me up and insist Elle get up, washed and changed. After we stripped and remade the bed we both decided it would be useless to go back. It was about 5am. I had checked the indoor temperatures and it was almost 70 degrees but everything we touched was still cold. There was nothing we could do to clean up the yard until daylight so we decided to read. It had been quite a while since I’d had the time to read. Most of the books I’d been reading were about naval battles in WWII but, for some unknown reason I grabbed a book called “The Last Days of the Late Great State of California” that my mother thought I might like. When I had asked her why she chose it she couldn’t give me an answer. But, that was my mother.

By daylight I’d made it through four chapters, enough to get me ‘hooked’. But seeing the mess in the yard I really couldn’t ignore it. I had to plead for Elle to help me. In one of the strange traits of nature, the outside temperature had risen during the night to the point that most of the ice that had been on the trees had melted and was now on the ground. I don’t remember what the temperature was but without wind it was fairly comfortable. My goal was to get the driveway clear and to at least get the small and medium size limbs into a pile. We were about to take a break when we heard a voice from over by the hedge that separated our house from the one next door. I looked in that direction and saw a woman dressed in a long overcoat and an oversized fur hat. I headed in that direction and heard her call out… “I’m Matty! What’s your name?”

To be continued…

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169t)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169t)

It didn’t take Dolly long to win the older girls over with them pestering her to play games with them like she’d done when she’d stayed with us in the mobile home . The problem was that my mother didn’t have any games for them as their visits were usually beach visits. Elle’s mother was the one who had the games. Because they would sometimes stay overnight with Elle’s parents we’d left some games there to keep the girls occupied while Elle’s mother did her chores. I was the one designated to trudge thought the small limbs and twigs on the path and lawn to fetch them. By that time, about eleven o’clock, the wind had started to abate so it didn’t seem as bitterly cold as it had been when we left our house. It took about 15 minutes to get there, pick out the games the girls wanted and to return. Walking back into the house I was a bit taken aback to see Dolly and the kids sitting on the floor in front of the fire. They were playing some kind of card game and Dolly was on her knees with her wool suit skirt pulled up around her hips. Unfortunately, I was facing her so wasn’t the beneficiary of her position. But, what really caught my attention was hearing my father talking on the telephone. Service had been restored while I was gone. In catching a snippet of his conversation I gathered it had to do with the train and what schedule they were on. Elle’s father, a fisherman, delivered heating oil in the Winter when he couldn’t fish. He was putting his coat on to go to work knowing that there would be customers who had let their oil tanks run low. Elle’s and my mother were in the kitchen trying to cobble enough food together for lunch. So I put the stack of games on the floor and proceeded to observe what the group on the floor were doing.

I’d maneuvered my way to be on Dolly’s right side. The skirt and slip were riding on her hip bone and there was about two inches or so of panty showing. I knew that Dolly wore bikinis having had ample opportunity to see what she wore back a few years ago. But it was still nice to see even a bit of them. When they finished the card game Dolly pushed herself up from the floor to the point that she was now squatting and turned towards the games I’d put on the floor. The peek was only for a split second but it was a crotch shot which made up for the shortness of it. Once a game was chosen Dolly returned to her knees and opened the box. Before she took the playing board out she turned to her left side and I watched as she fumbled with something on her waist. I certainly wasn’t expecting what followed. With my full concentration on her I watched as she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of the skirt and sort of wiggled it down her hips where the material met the already bunched material that she’d pulled up earlier. Then she suddenly stood up and let the whole mass fall to the floor and stepped out of it. She still had her slip on but it was so short it barely covered her panties. Then she was back down on her knees and on the floor concentrating on starting the game she’d chosen. It was like all in one motion. Regrettably, I wasn’t quick enough to take it all in and I rationalized that by telling myself that it had only taken a few seconds and I really hadn’t missed anything. My father, still on the phone, was oblivious to the whole thing. Looking at her there on the floor like that I wondered just what Elle’s mother would say if she saw her. Actually, she’d baby sat for Dolly and her siblings for many years and had some an idea of some of Dolly’s antics. My mother, for sure, did as they would get together any number of times during the year. Even though I had to look at her panties through her slip, I was happy.

When my father got off the phone he told us there definitely would be a train that afternoon. The tracks had been cleared and the regular 3pm train was running. When he came over to where we were I honestly don’t think he noticed how Dolly was dressed. He didn’t stay long and headed for the kitchen. Dolly never missed a move in the game, totally immersed in it and I was totally immersed in watching her. When my mother called out to us that lunch was ready the kids abandoned the game immediately. That left me siting in a chair sort of looking down at Dolly. She didn’t look at me but reached for her skirt and that excited me as I figured I’d get, at the minimum, a profile view of her in her panties, albeit through her slip. But… she proceeded to lift it over her head and pull in down to her hips. Never pausing, I watched as she fiddled with something at her waist and then stood up, pulling the hem of the skirt down as she did. Then she looked at me with what would best be called a ‘knowing smile’ and headed for the kitchen to join the others. Foiled!

I volunteered to drive Dolly to the station. I remember there being a few people waiting which somewhat surprised me. The train arrived a little later than 3pm and Dolly seemed anxious to get back to the city. In parting I told her not to be such a stranger. That elicited another smile. The church was in view from where I’d parked so drove over to take a look to see if there was any visible damage. The only two trees on the property were in the front and, as expected, there were a lot of twigs and leaves. There were no downed branches for which I was thankful. I knew I’d have to find time to clean up the mess but it wasn’t going to be right then. To get back to my parents house I had to drive past the real estate office where Andy, the broker who’d sold the house next door to us, worked for his father. When I saw the damage to the house early in the morning I didn’t know how to get in touch with the new owner. After the closing on the house, which was held at the bank, J J had brought the new owner down to introduce us but the man was very ‘cold’ and seemed uninterested in doing anything more than shaking hands and leaving. Seeing the office I made a quick decision to stop, hoping Andy or his father were there so I could pass on the information of the damage. I figured they would have contact information and could let the owner know, especially now that the phone lines were back operational. But it was Andy’s mother who was there. A nice woman, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She didn’t seem to understand what I was telling her. I wanted to get back to my parents house so persuaded her to give me the phone number(s) of the new owner. She wasn’t sure she should do it but I prevailed.

The piece of paper she gave me had no name(s) on it so my call was ‘blind’ in that I had no idea who would answer the phone. It was definitely a female but it took a minute to make that determination. The voice was deep and after she finally got it into her mind who I was she explained that she was a daughter of the owner. He was in Florida for the Winter and she was in Connecticut. After a couple of attempts at describing what I’d observed she explained that she’d not seen the house. She finally asked what I thought she should do. I really, really didn’t want to get involved  and thought I could escape by giving her Jonesie’s (the handy man who went to all the high school basketball games) name and phone number. She seemed appreciative and that led me to believe I was ‘free’… but only for a few seconds. When she asked if he’d need a key I couldn’t give an honest answer and knew I wasn't.

To be continued…