MAKING PROGRESS... of sorts (Part 172r)

MAKING PROGRESS… of sorts (Part 172r)

Going onto the work week I was somewhat prepared for it to be a little ‘frantic’ as the branch committee was meeting right before the full Board meeting. Having been denied access to the planning for the first branch and having had to ‘live’ with the results of the less than knowledgeable (as far as daily bank operations were concerned) decisions made by the Board members who made up the committee, Hobie made an effort to have me become an ex-officio, non-voting, member. However, my least favorite Board member, “Polack Joe” had managed to get appointed to the branch committee and at the last meeting had pretty much muted my efforts to comment on the preliminary plans. It wasn’t that important as there were major problems with the zoning requirements which was delaying any real immediate action. Even knowing that it was still an uncomfortable situation to be in. I’d managed to get on the ‘good side’ of Morris, the consultant the bank was using to guide them in all aspects of the new branch from choosing the location, architect and on to the the gifts used at the opening, and he would let me know what was going to happen in the meetings before hand. That way I could at least give him some of my concerns and hope he’d incorporate them into his presentation. It wasn’t the way it should be done but that’s the way it was.

After receiving his call I felt better. The ingress and egress problem with the zoning board had been put to rest. Now the focus could/would be on designing the branch building within the confines of the remaining available space. That was where I wanted to be involved. The question for me was how much ‘static’ would I get from “Polack Joe”. I went into the meeting a little apprehensive but before it really got started one of the Trustees put forth a concern that he claimed a number of other committee members had expressed to him… Based upon the less than expected acceptance for the first branch he wanted to propose the idea of designing the building in such a way that if it didn’t make it as a bank branch that it could be marketed and sold for some other purpose. I swear that my mouth dropped open when I heard that. I couldn’t believe they if they didn’t have the confidence in moving ahead then why do it. My eyes were on Morris to see his reaction… but there wasn’t one. A quick look at Hobie told me that he was blindsided as well.  Morris didn’t immediately respond but with measured words said he’d do whatever it was that they wanted. He told them he had some ‘rough’ sketches of branches with the ‘footprint’ that we’d be limited to. However, the Trustee who brought up the subject said he didn’t want to waste time on them. I already knew the target for the opening wasn’t until the following year so time wasn’t really a factor. I think I might’ve sat there and scratched my head as the chairman of the committee motioned the meeting to be over.

With Hobie there I wasn’t needed for the full Trustee meeting so, with the beginning of the ‘busy period’ just a week away decided to make sure we were ready for the onslaught of customers by meeting with Bret, Trish and Lorie. I’d noticed some new clothes on Lorie a few weeks ago. Her normal choice was wool or polyester skirts and as we gathered in the work area I saw her in a khaki cotton skirt. As she jumped up on one of the work tables I was standing behind it and as she did I could see a VPL for at least the leg elastics. Not that I had many chances to ever see much of anything from her but it was refreshing. It reminded me that I’d seen panties on the clothes line at her home and kind of kicked myself for not taking that route home more often.

We were going over some of the supplies we needed when Joanie let me know I had a phone call. I asked who it was and she sort of shrugged her shoulders saying it was a man she thought told her his name was Cliff. There were three Cliff’s that I knew so decided to take the call. It was Cliffy telling me that he thought he’d found a set of matching cylinder heads and asking if I could go pick them up. My first question was where they were located. He told me and I knew it was about an hour away. The second question was about the money for them. There was a ‘pregnant pause’ before he asked if I could pay for them and he’d give me the cash when I delivered them to the garage. The third question was why the rush. He told me he'd convinced the parts guy at the Chevy dealership where they were that he’d “be taken care of”. The guy told him to be there that night or to forget about it. Have you ever had a debate with yourself? As I remember it mine took about 30 seconds or so. It was one of those where no matter what I did someone was going to be mad at me.  The only way I could pull it off was to get Lorie to have one of the tellers open her cash box to get me the money I needed. I signed the withdrawal slip, got the cash and took off. I did call Elle before leaving and got the ‘silent treatment’… which I knew was only the beginning of my ‘punishment’.

The parts guy was someone I wouldn’t have wanted to run into in a dark alley. Gruff and burly, the first thing he wanted was his piece of the action… $25. (Remember, it was 1969) Each head was wrapped in a padded piece of brown paper. Cliffy told me to make sure the numbers matched on each head and when I went to open the paper up the guy wouldn’t let me. I started to protest and he immediately handed me the money back. Before I could say anything he told me he was doing us a favor because they’d  already been sold and he was doing us a favor by giving them to us. I didn’t know what to do. It was another lose/lose situation. Another debate with myself with taking the heads without checking the numbers winning out.

I arrived at the garage around 9pm and found Dick and Alan there waiting for me. Cliffy had been hired to drive a local doctor to some sort of medical conference just North of the city and wasn’t back yet. We got the heads out of the trunk of my car and set them on the bench. I knew nothing about cylinder heads other than their function on the motor. I did know we’d have to do some prep work on them before installing them so, was prepared to watch what they were going to do. Stripping the paper off, Dick checked to see that there were no nicks in the surface. It was while he was doing it he noticed something. Laying the two heads side by side he could see there was a slight difference in the exhaust ports. That’s when he checked the numbers. They were not the same!

Now I knew I was in trouble, big time, with Cliffy as well as Elle… and was out the money for the heads on top of it. I told the guys what had happened and why I accepted the heads. I didn’t care what they thought about it because hindsight is always 20/20. We didn’t know when Cliffy would be back but I decided I’d wait and would take the ‘heat’ I knew would come… and it came… around 11pm.

To be continued…