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…