LIFE GOES ON... and on (Part 171b)

LIFE GOES ON… and on… (Part171b)

I’ve written about how my grandfather used cliche’s all the time. Some were from when he was small and the language was less sophisticated. When Elle spoke the words about possibly being pregnant I almost immediately thought of something my grandfather ’spouted’ when a group of his old business partners showed up at the house for his 65th birthday. It was during WWII and gasoline was rationed. Somehow these men cobbled together enough ration points to fill the tank of one of their cars and drove the 90 or so miles to surprise him. I was living with my grandparents at the time and I had no idea who these men were but I heard the words “Well I’ll be gobsmacked!” and they were forever registered in my brain. Of course my grandfather had to explain the meaning of it which further reinforced it. Well, sitting in bed and hearing “I think I may be pregnant…” put me in the same position that my grandfather had been in when the men showed up totally unexpected. I don’t remember saying anything until Elle asked if I was going to say something. I’m not sure what I said first but I do remember after I had time for it to ‘register’ asking about all her plans to start teaching full time. For that, it was her that was speechless.

When we finally turned out the lights it was almost midnight. Nothing was decided because all she was basing her statement on was that she was over two weeks late on her period. For as long as I’d known her her periods were almost like clockwork… every 28 days… give a day on either side. Her periods were longer than most women experienced so when we were first married I dreaded those seven to eight days. The last time I’d tracked it was during the previous Summer in anticipation of our trip to Bermuda. After that we were both so busy that I didn’t give much thought to when it was due. The last thought I had before trying to fall asleep was that it still might come. She agreed to make an appointment with her doctor the following week.

The alarm went off around 6:30 am. As I was getting washed and shaved I heard the older girls  waking up. They no longer believed in the Easter Bunny but had been schooled to not let Kaye know. I had to get the sidewalks shoveled at the church and hoped to be back in time to see all of them when they went looking for their Easter eggs. On my way to my car I took note of spots of colored snow. I went over to one and picked up an egg. All the color had come off and was now on the snow that surrounded it. It was somewhat funny but I knew the kids would be disappointed. Now I really wanted to be a part of their Easter egg hunt if for no other reason than to see their faces when they found white eggs in place of the expected colored ones.

Elle was planning on taking the kids to the 10am service so they weren’t dressed up when I got back home. They looked more like waifs with their winter clothes on as they went out the door. It really was a funny sight watching them run to the areas with colored snow. As expected, they were disappointed with their ‘haul’ of white eggs and I remember Elle telling them they could decorate them with crayons later that afternoon. The two most attended services each calendar year were at Christmas and Easter but the snow managed to keep many away on this day, especially those with small children. I was a ‘greeter’ for the service and I almost didn’t recognize Janelle wearing a heavy Winter coat and with make-up on and her hair nicely coiffed. Elle was standing next to me when she and her mother came in and I, on purpose, introduced her as Elle just to get ‘my’ Elle’s reaction. She honestly thought I’d gotten flustered when I did but Janelle quickly cleared the matter up. There was no repeat of the previous day’s DP but she was still nice to look at. She took part in handing out the potted plants to the few kids that had showed up. We ended up giving some to the older parishioners which actually made them happier than the kids. At the ‘meet and greet’ after the service Elle and I got to meet Janelle’s mother. After chatting for a few minutes she seemed to think there was a chance that her husband, who’d been killed in WWII, had worked for my grandfather before he enlisted in the Navy. An exchange of names and phone numbers pretty much closed out the morning. Janelle told us she’d look us up when she returned on vacation in the Summer. Looking at her as she spoke I could only imagine what she’d look like in a pair of shorts and looked forward to her return.

Back at home it was obvious that the conversation that Elle and I’d had the previous night was still ‘front and center’ on both our minds. Once Elle set the girls up to decorate their non colored Easter eggs we sat down to go over, with paper and pencil, just what her possible pregnancy would mean to all of us. It was one thing to lay in bed and to go over the obvious but it was necessary to both our thoughts down on paper. As we started in I got the feeling that Elle wasn’t all that upset about it. In my own mind the thought was, as inconvenient as it might turn out to be, I might end up with a son. We spent about a half hour on it and resolved to come back to it after Elle visited her doctor. I remember sitting there as Elle walked out of the room and tried to envision having a baby around the house for more than the two weeks we’d taken care of Beth’s baby back in February. It certainly would change our lives.

The ‘busy period’ ran through Thursday but lobby traffic after Monday fell off sharply. Hobie was scheduled to go to the city to attend the meeting called by the banking association to discuss the large deposit outflows from the member banks. Hobie, who’d worked in the city before being employed by the bank, hated the thought of having to go there and as Monday came to an end was clearly not happy with that prospect. He was going over what I was to do at Wednesday’s mortgage committee meeting with me when I got a hint that he might not go. Knowing that J J, who had a higher ranking title than I, was considered to be ‘loose cannon’ when it came to representing the bank was an indication that it might be me headed for the city. That was a scary thought. I knew that most of the attendees would be senior bank officers and I wasn’t but a junior officer. With that prospect on my mind it pretty much killed the day… and night for me.

After a night of tossing and turning I arrived at the bank and found Hobie waiting for me. The decision had been made and I was to represent the bank. I spent the morning being fully briefed on the whole subject of interest rates, State usuery regulations and strict instructions to be nothing more than an observer. As I left Hobie’s area I suddenly realized that to be selected to represent the bank at this meeting was quite an honor… and I stopped worrying about it.

To be continued…