SPRING... adapting to the changes (Part 80g)

By the end of the week I could make it to noon without taking a pain pill so I knew I was getting better. I found that standing didn’t hurt as much as sitting which was a blessing as that was most of what my work required. However, there was no way I could do any real physical labor. I’d worked my debt for the patio room down to about $300 and had projected that I’d have the “boys" paid up by Memorial day, the projected opening for the new travel trailer portion of the park. It seemed that the project was ”jinxed“ for me as well as the "boys" as one thing after another went wrong. Money was already tight for me and Jean’s 4th birthday was coming up at the end of the month. I told Jay that I thought maybe my racing career was over before it started. He tried to be optimistic but I wasn’t convinced.

One thing that I did know was that somehow I had to get the wrecked race car out of the yard where we’d we’d left it. I made some telephone calls and was able to locate the replacement steering parts that would allow me to tow the car back to the park. I felt bad in asking Eric to do the repairs but there was no way for me to do it. It was Saturday when we moved it back to the lean to at the park. It was very discouraging looking at the wounded car.

Andy had seen us putting the car away. When I got home he called me over over to ask what my plans for the car were. As we talked Lil came outside and headed to the rear yard. Seeing her headed that way Andy motioned for me to follow him. As we got there I got a bit excited when I saw clothes on the wash line. But Andy wanted to ask me what he could do about the hole in the back wall of their patio room. Alvin had purchased an electric clothes dryer and the hole was for the vent. He’d taken it out when he left and Andy had no plans to put one in. As I looked at it I tried my best to peek at the clothes line but with no success. But just seeing Lil and the clothes on the line perked up my spirits up. I’d either been too busy or hurting too much to have paid any attention since she and Andy had moved in. My interest was now revived.

An interesting thing happened at work around that time. When I finished printing the payroll checks and everything was in ”proof“, I had to deliver then to the Treasurer’s office. The lady who received them would sign a receipt for them. I never knew her name as all she ever signed was ”Mrs. G.“. On this Thursday she asked me what my name was. Sort of surprised by the question, I told her. She asked if I knew her son, Richie and I said I didn’t think so. Not knowing her last name, off the top of my head I couldn’t think of any Richies. Then she told me her last name and it came to me that it might be Elle’s classmate who we’d seen at the doctor’s office a while back. I then remembered that he’d married the girl, Joan, who had lived next door to my grandparents when I lived with them for a while during WWII. Of course I had to ”play nice“ and talk with her for a while.

When we’d met them, Richie had said they had moved back so he could start a business but nothing was mentioned about Joan. Mrs. G. went on about how Richie was doing and ended up asking me if I knew of any part time jobs for Joan. I didn’t and since it was only May it was too early for hiring for the tourist season. She told me that Joan was supposed to have started at the Cornell University Ag station but the funding for her position had been held up. She described her as going ”stir crazy“ as she didn’t know anybody and was just sitting at home doing nothing. I didn’t have any suggestions and really had to get back to work.

I’m pretty sure it was the following week that when I walked in the door Elle was bouncing up and down with excitement. She’d been called by one of the schools and asked if she wanted to finish out the school year for them. I could easily tell that she wanted to do it but I could also tell that she didn’t like the idea of being away from the kids for almost four weeks. We talked it out and my input was that in spite of only grossing $10 a day after paying her mother to watch the kids it would be great for her resume. I also told her that I thought she’d really like teaching the same kids day in and day out and it would give her a taste of being a ”real teacher”. She pretty much agreed so the next step was to call her mother to confirm that she’d take care of the kids.

The answer was an emphatic “No!”. Once or twice a week was OK but not every day, even if we drove the kids to her house. Elle went from happy and excited to sad and somewhat depressed in just that one phone call. After supper we went over all the options we could think of for care it but just got too complicated. Dora could do it a couple of days a week but not every week. Lil could watch them some mornings but then who would take the afternoons. Eric’s wife, who we didn’t really know, said she “might” be able to help out but we’d have to call the night before. When we finally went to bed we had both pretty much given up the idea.

Thankfully, the school had given her a few days to make the decision. Once in bed, I lay there going over the options again. I finally did fall asleep but when Elle got up with one of “alarms“ I was half awake. While I was waiting for her to come back to bed, for some unknown reason I thought of Mrs. G. from the Treasurer’s office and what she’d told me about Joan, her daughter in law. I remember turning on the light and telling Elle about the conversation. Half asleep, she didn’t seem all that keen on the idea but agreed that we’d go over it again in the morning.

Elle’s biggest concern was that she didn’t know anything about Joan. I tried to allay her concern by telling her that her parents were good friends of my parents and that I remembered visiting them when I was about 11 or 12. By the time I left for work I’d at least gotten her to let me call.

To be continued...

SPRING... adapting to the changes (Part 80f)

I could barely get in my car to go and get the race car to flat tow it to the track. I told Elle to call Eric and to have him come over. When he showed up I told him he had to drive the car to the track. Andy and Jim were going to arrive at the track a little later so Eric had to get the tow bar attached by himself... no small project. Once at the track I knew there was no way I could drive the car. The only way to get in the seat was to climb though the window and I could barely get out of the passenger seat of my car. When I told Eric he was driving it there was no way for him to hide his excitement. My helmet was a little big on him but he didn’t care. When practice started I made my way, very slowly, to the fence located at the edge of the pit area. It only took a few laps to see there was a very serious problem. The car didn’t want to turn when it got to the end of the straightaway and Eric came very close to hitting the retaining fence. He brought the car in and made an adjustment to the front end of the car and went back out. The change helped but not a whole lot. When practice ended he made another adjustment but with no more practice time it meant he didn’t know exactly what the car would do.

My car was in the Flathead division. There were well over 30 cars signed in and only 24 cars would start in the Main Event. To get those 24 cars there were three qualifying events with the first seven cars qualifying. All the non qualifiers had a last chance with the top three getting the last three starting positions. Because it was the first time my car had signed in it had to start in the back of the first qualifying race. I think Eric started 12th. The race was 10 laps and, much to my surprise and delight, Eric had moved up to 7th by half way through. I swear I didn’t feel any pain as I watched him move up. But then, as he went into the first turn, another car dove underneath him and hit the left rear tire and didn’t stop. The other car literally drove up the side of my car and the two of them ended up crashed into the retaining fence. When they stopped the front of other car was up on on the hood of my car. They stopped the race and as much as I wanted to go to the site of the wreck the pain in my back wouldn't let me move. Andy and Jim ran down the track along with the track’s emergency personnel. After a few minutes I could see Eric with them. He was fine but the car wasn’t.

When the car was towed into the pit area I could see the front axel was bent as well as some of the steering components. I had absolutely no spare parts and there was no way to tow the car home in the shape it was in. The father of one of the other racers came over to look at it. I knew him a bit from when I’d had my first race car. He told me that when the races were over for the night that he and his son would come over to try to give us a hand. By the time they did I was in such pain, both physically and mentally, that I didn’t care what they did with the car. After they worked on it we were told that we could move it very slowly but that we really shouldn’t think of taking it back to the mobile home park. The man suggested that we tow (it was more like drag) it to his place which was about a mile away. To be truthful, I don’t remember doing it but Eric managed to get it there.

I went to the see the doctor on Sunday (remember, it was 1963) and he felt that I probably had a bulging disk that was rubbing on a nerve. The cure was bed rest with a couple of pillows under my knees. I got prescriptions for a muscle relaxer and a pain killer. I don’t remember anything but going into the doctor’s office. By Wednesday I felt good enough to attempt to go to work... much against Elle’s wishes. Jay had gone to the races on Saturday night but he and Jo had sat in the grandstands. He said they’d gone into the pit area after the races and had talked with me. I didn’t remember it at all.

By lunch time I was in real pain again. However, I didn’t go right home but went up to where Eric had left the race car. I had taken the little Polaroid with me. When I saw it I remembered the accident but was amazed in seeing the tire mark of the other car running right up the drivers side. I hadn't seen (or remembered) it. It was then that realized that the left front fender had been ripped entirely off and wondered where it had ended up. I could definitely see that the axel was bent and seeing it I wondered where I’d get another one. They were very scarce as they were from pre WWII Ford cars and pick up trucks. Those old Fords were the car of choice for most stock car racers and the front axel was the most vulnerable part. I knew that if you could find one that they weren’t cheap. Not only did my back hurt but now I knew that if I wanted to continue to race that my wallet would hurt as well. As I drove home I wondered if I’d ever actually get to drive in a race.

If there was one benefit to being home and laid up was that I got to do some reading, something I hadn’t done since college. I also got to see a lot of Elle in just her panties. When the kids would take their naps she would take off her skirt or slacks to give me a “free show”. I remember wishing that we could have some extended time to do just that. Lying there in bed I was right next to Elle's panty drawer. I spent some good amount of time thinking of combinations of panties that I'd like to see Elle wear. Being at home she didn't need to wear a "package" but she'd found that it was still a good idea to wear a pair of heavy cotton panties to catch the "dribbles". I remember asking her to wear a pair of Plymouth nylon satin ones over them and asking her to let me have a feel of them when she'd come in to check on me. It was almost as good as the pain killers I was taking.

To be continued...

SPRING... adapting to the changes (Part 80e)

As you can imagine I was not looking forward to facing either Jay or Jo at work on Monday. I arrived a little early so as to be involved with a project when they arrived. However, Jay was already there and as soon as I arrived he motioned for me to go into his office with him. I don’t think I’d ever been in there with him before. He hardly ever used it preferring to work at a table in the general work area. As soon as we walked inside he sort of blurted out that he had filed for a divorce from his wife. At first I wasn’t sure what that had to do with what I’d seen on Friday but it quickly came to me that he was trying to use it as an excuse. I don’t remember saying anything but I do remember being very uncomfortable. It really was awkward.

Jo didn’t arrive until almost noon and I could tell that she was doing her best to avoid me. That, in itself, was strange because we had a really good working relationship. We’d usually start the day going over what we each had planned and just which order we would need each piece of machinery. Jo did go to lunch with Jay without telling any of the rest of us. I knew why but Andre was a bit puzzled.

As far as Rena was concerned it took a few weeks until she was back to her old flirting self. I was a bit surprised but certainly enjoyed the attention. The first such episode is still vivid in my memory. One of the duties of a keypunch operator was to occasionally empty the “chip” bucket. (“Chips” were what we called the residue from the punch cards. In the Bush election they were called “chad“.) Because she was new to the job she wasn’t as vigilant as she should’ve been and on this one day the chips were overflowing onto the floor. To get to the bin you had to lean over the machine and pull it out, actually pulling it away from yourself. When she did this she dumped a good bit of them out making a mess under her machine. When she squatted down to try and clean it up she was ”duck walking“ as she moved around trying to scoop them up. Each time she moved she would spread her legs and then close them. I happened to see it and was enjoying myself as I watched the white “magic triangle” go from big to small and back again. I really was hoping that she wouldn’t notice but she did and she saw me looking she smiled and stopped with her legs open as wide as her skirt would let her. I remember feeling flushed as I watched.

When Alvin and Millie left for Texas they had the electricity turned off. When Andy and Lil bought the unit they were like kids with a new toy at Christmas. They decided they wanted to sleep in it even without power and heat and brought blankets and flashlights much as they would have done if camping. For the next few days Lil and Dora, using their kids wagons, started the process of transferring their belongings. It took a few days for the power to be turned on and it seemed strange to see lights again. The one thing they didn’t have was telephone. On this one morning, while waiting for Elle’s mother to arrive to watch the kids, I got a call from Andy who was at work. He needed to get a message to Lil and asked if I could run next door to give it to her. As soon as Elle’s mother walked in the door I was on my way to next door. I was on my way up the steps when I saw Lil walking through the living room. Unless my eyes were deceiving me it looked like all she had on was a T shirt and panties. I knocked and I could see her returning towards the door. It opened and she was sort of hiding behind it. I gave her the message and, much to my surprise, she let go of the door and walked over to the dining room table. At that point there was no doubt that all she had on was a T shirt and her panties. She picked something up from the table, returned to the door and thanked me, making little effort to cover herself up. The whole thing took probably less than 30 seconds and as I started back down the steps I realized that I had a pretty sizable bulge. My concerns about living next door to Andy and Lil had been much reduced.

As opening night for the stock car races got closer it seemed like there were still a lot of little things to be done to be completely ready. Eric and I had recruited both Andy and Jim to go as our “pit crew” but as willing as they were they had no experience. Eric had done most of the work on the car but, among other things, it still needed to be painted. It had almost as much rust as paint on it with a faded silver number 51 showing through. It was a mess! When I had to move the storage sheds to make way for the new exit road from the park I found a whole bunch of old paint cans. Dick told me that they were mine if I had a use for them. I felt that by having Jim and Andy throw a coat of paint on the car would be a good way to get them involved. However, when they did the car looked worse than before they started.

The big day came and I still had to get my work in on the new travel trailer section of the park. The “boys” hadn’t planned on having to put the new road in so their budget had taken a big hit. They had envisioned having the trailers parked on cement pads and ordered a dump truck load of blue stone to lay as a base. My job was moving it to each location via a wheelbarrow. If you’ve been reading the whole blog you might remember that I’d hurt my back when I was training horses. I’d had an occasional problem but nothing debilitating. Well... I overdid it and by lunch time I was in great pain. I went home to get some aspirin and to take a rest. I lay down on the bed but after a half hour the pain was worse. Elle pleaded with me to go to the doctor but, by then all i could think about was opening night and the race car. It was going to be my first race as a driver. Jay and Jo were coming as well. I just knew I had to suck it up go.

To be continued...

SPRING... adapting to the changes (Part 80d)

When Easter came and went we hadn’t heard from Alvin and Millie. Millie had promised to write and keep us posted as to how they were doing. I knew that Alvin had listed the mobile home for sale but neither Elle nor I had seen much, if any, activity, So, it came as quite a shock when we answered a knock on our door to find Andy and Lil. Before we could say anything, Andy, in his usual boisterous self said “Hi neighbor!”. And he wasn’t kidding. We invited them in and they told us they had bought Alvin’s unit. I knew that Andy had bought a piece of property but had thought it was to build a house on. But that was still a ways down the road. With two soon to be teen aged sons they had run out of room. They had bought their mobile home from Alvin and Millie’s and it was only a 40’ by 8’ wide. As I sat there listening to them I wondered what life living next door to them would be like. Don’t get me wrong... I liked Andy and considered him a good friend. But, Alvin, Millie and their girls were extremely quiet and Andy, Lil and their sons were directly the opposite. Of course we expressed pleasure about the news to them but, to ourselves, we had some serious doubts.

Work on the new travel trailer part of the park was a disaster. The “boys” hadn’t done nearly enough planning. The need to put in a new exit to the park had thrown a serious crimp into both time and money. Ben, in an effort to cut costs, borrowed a small tractor with a bucket on it to do the excavating. It turned out that it wasn’t big enough, and, in frustration, Ben ended up trying something that he shouldn’t have tried and, in so doing, ended up collapsing a cesspool. I can still see the tractor, half swallowed up by the hole, with it’s bucket pointed to the sky. All the delay meant to me was that I wasn’t doing what had been projected for me. I was still getting paid and that was the important part.

Jay was able to get Rena in to meet with Mrs. K, the Deputy Civil Service Director and to work out the details of joining us in the Data Processing department. I, purposely, stayed in the background and actually left the office when she was introduced. Lucy took over her training. I’d guess it was probably a couple of hours before I acknowleged her at all. What was surprising to me was that she didn’t express any hesitation when she acknowleged me back. I had figured that she’d not want to see me at all. I took the situation for what it was and just smiled.

My patience in waiting for some “action” from the “mystery woman’s” wash line finally paid off somewhere in this period of time. I came home one night and there, blowing in the wind on a partially filled wash line were a bunch of bikini panties. It was light enough to see that some were colored. My problem was that our kitchen was right in the front of our unit and Elle was there preparing supper so there was no way I could dally looking at them from my car or to go over and investigate. What it did do was to reinvigorate my interest in her.

The stock car racing season was scheduled to open the first Sunday in May. Eric had continued to “putter” on the car while I worked on the travel trailer project. He was “hot to trot” and couldn’t wait for the season to begin. As usual for me, money was scarce. The motor was in and all that was needed was a battery so that we could run it. Tires were another missing ingredient but we both wanted to hear the roar of the motor. Eric had gotten so impatient that he “sprung” for the battery and came to tell me. It was probably close to 7pm when we walked up to the car and installed it. Stock cars do not have mufflers. They are loud. It was... complete with a few backfires mixed in. It was almost completely dark and we didn’t have the equipment necessary to fine tune the ignition so we quit, happy to know that it was capable of running.

Next day at work I told Jay about the “christening” and he insisted that we go out to the car during lunch. We pushed the car out from under the lean to and I cranked it over. It was the same as the night before with a number of backfires. Jay knew exactly what was wrong and got a wrench. He loosened up the nut that held the distributor in place and turned it a little and the backfiring stopped. We were both very involved in projects at work and as much as we both wanted to stay we headed back. On the way jay said that I needed to get a “hot firing” distributor. I didn’t really know what he meant so asked about it. He said he thought he could get his hands on one for me and by then we were back at work.

I know it was Friday when Jay walked in with something wrapped in rags. He handed to to me and as I peeled the rags off I saw a “hot firing” distributor, complete with a “hot” coil. The name tag on it told the story s it read “Mallory”, a name I’d seen on some of the faster cars like Jim’s cousin the year before. I asked Jay how much I owed him even though I didn’t have any money. He just smiled, shrugged and wished me “good luck!”.

None of us had desks as we were always at different machines and seldom, if ever, sitting. With the new office we finally had a storage area. It was decided that one shelf would be designated for the employees to keep their personal things. I took the distributor and put it in my space and went back to work. Being a Friday we’d all taken Rena’s lead and would hold back until at least 5:15pm or later to avoid the “rush” of getting out of the parking lot. When I left Jay and Jo were still there. I was at the traffic circle when I remembered the distributor. I remember cussing as I went the full 360 degrees around it and headed back to the office. I noticed that Jay’s truck was still there but didn’t think much of it. As usual, I used the fire door to get in. The “back” door to the office had no windows but I had a key for it and walked right in. The lights were out which somewhat surprised me what with Jay’s truck in the parking lot. It was only about ten steps to the store room door. I opened it and went straight for my shelf space, grabbing the distributor and turning to go back out. But, something white in the middle of the aisle caught my eye. I stopped and as I did I heard a familiar squeal. It was Jo and as I looked I could see that she was straddling someone as I could see two legs underneath her. I was frozen in place for a few seconds. I saw her turn her head and look right at me. I also saw white between her bottom and the legs under her. I was probably only in there for fifteen seconds. When I was back in the office itself I found myself perspiring profusely. I’d just walked in on a very compromising situation and yet I found myself embarrassed. I was out of the office and down the stairs in a flash. I was at the traffic circle before I was able to breath normally. At the entrance to the park I stopped the car to try and figure out what had been going on. I didn’t want to be sitting at supper trying to figure it out while carrying on a conversation with Elle.

To be continued...

SPRING... adapting to the changes (Part 80c)

At work, the new lady who Jay had brought in temporarily decided that the commute was too much for her so quit after only a month. Jay, upset, went to see the Deputy Civil Service Director to get some sort of direction as far as when a new test for Key Punch Operator was going to be offered. Mrs. K, the Deputy explained that it wasn’t that simple. Since Data processing was a new discipline for the County they needed to do a detailed audit of just what work the staff actually did so that job descriptions could be created and tests written. That didn’t satisfy Jay. He asked (pleaded) for help in that he needed an employee “yesterday”. Mrs. K brought out the fact that, as she understood it, the days of punch cards was pretty much over and asked Jay about the new tape drive. Then she said that after the audit the position of Key Punch Operator might very well be changed to “Data Entry Clerk”. Jay, always quick to seize on an opportunity, asked if someone who was presently a “Clerk Typist” couldn’t be put in the Key Punch Operator position on a temporary basis until such time as the new job description was created. She said that, in this situation, she would approve it.

I’ve consciously avoided saying much about Rena, the girl from the Purchasing Department who was seriously hurt in an auto accident on New Years Eve. In a very clandestine way I’d been keeping up with her progress in recovery and knew that she’d been released to go back to work. I also knew that she’d quickly used up her paid sick days and was on a LOA (leave of absence). Whenever a County employee went on a LOA for more than three months that person’s position could be filled on a permanent basis by the department. (Remember, this was 1963). The person on the LOA was guaranteed a position upon their return but it could be in any department with a vacancy for the job title that the LOA person held. I’d quietly been mentioning to Jay that Rena would be a good fit for the department ever since Linda had quit. He, more or less, agreed with me but seemed hung up on the vacancy being for Key Punch Operator and with Rena being a Clerk Typist. I’d never really “pushed” it, relying on dropping casual asides to him whenever the opportunity arose.

When Jay returned from his meeting with Mrs. K he called all of us into his office and asked if any of us saw a problem with bringing Rena in. Andre, because he’d briefly dated her, seemed to be the only one who even raised an eyebrow. With that general approval, Jay looked to me and asked if I could get in touch with her. That was not what I wanted! I’d deliberately played down my relationship with Rena and that didn’t help. I said that I would go across the hall to the Purchasing Department and ask Corrine, the busty blond secretary, if she could give her a message. That was as involved as I wanted to be.

This period of time is kind of a blur as to what happened first, second, third, etc. It was sometime after Easter that both my kids ended up with bad colds. Up to then Elle and I had been incredibly fortunate in that our kids had avoided any major illnesses. I got home from work on this one night and Elle was concerned that Anne, our youngest, had a high fever that she couldn't get to go down. We called the Doctor (you still could do that back in those times) and he told us to bring her on down after 7pm. (If you’ve read this epistle from the beginning, the Doctor was the Uncle of one of my first panty peek friends, Mary Jane) The office was in his house and his wife greeted us. We had to wait for a while and when the door to his office opened Elle recognized the man leaving as being one of her High School classmates, Ricky. I did know him but not that well as he came to Elle’s school for his junior and senior years while I was away at boarding school. They started chatting and then a tall woman followed him out of the office. There was something familiar about her but I couldn’t quite place it. It was something about the shape of her mouth. Ricky introduced her to Elle as his wife, Joan. That name rang a bell in my head. It suddenly came to me that she might be the girl who had lived next door to my grandparents during WWII and who I’d watched wet her panties a few times. I couldn’t believe it. She was almost as tall as I was and was half a head higher than her husband.

The doctor was waiting for Elle and Anne so while they went into his office I stayed with my older daughter and chatted with them. Right after WWII Joan’s family had moved closer to the city for work. Since her parents were both local, they continued to return to their “roots” during the Summer. Ricky met Joan one Summer and, eventually, they married. Ricky them went to work for Joan’s father but had decide to go off on his own and had returned just a few months ago. They had no children but were “trying” and that was why they were at the doctor's office. When Ricky mentioned that I could see Joan cringe. Looking at her I could definitely see her father’s features, especially her height. She wasn’t particularly pretty but there was a touch of cuteness when she smiled. I remembered from when we played together that she wasn’t very “sharp” and nothing she said while we talked made me change my mind on that.

We were still talking when Elle and Anne exited the Doctor’s office. Elle had been given instructions as what to do to lower the fever but the most important thing was that there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with her that time wouldn’t heal. As we all left we exchanged telephone numbers. I wasn’t sure why but we did.

To be continued...

SPRING... adapting to the changes (Part 80b)

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I was in such a rush to get something posted last week that I jumped over a whole two week period. There were a couple of things that happened during that time that I need to post as they will come into play again in future posts. Sorry ‘bout that.
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The new store that my across the street neighbor (the ”mystery woman“) was responsible for getting opened right before the first of April. She pulled off a major marketing coup by having a ”pre-opening“ for special groups. Among others they included all teachers and school staff for the local school district; doctors, nurses and local hospital staff; all the local town government officials and staff as well as the residents of the mobile home park. It was by invitation only and it was held from 6pm to 10pm the Friday night before the Saturday Grand Opening. Elle and I wanted to go but without the kids. With Alvin, Millie and their girls, our former neighbors, now in Texas we didn’t have built-in baby sitters any more. Elle’s mother had stepped in during the days that Elle was called in to teach but on those days she was not willing to take the kids at night. We didn’t want to ”dump“ them at a neighbor’s and have them there when it was time for bed. Elle called me at work when she got home from school that Friday and asked if I remembered the name of the girl from church who had comforted our youngest when she had a problem the week before. The funny thing was that I remembered her last name but not her first. I gave that to Elle to see if she could track her down. Purely by luck there was only one family with that name in the phone book and when Elle called the girl answered the phone. After Elle talked with her mother she was given permission and Elle called me to tell me to pick her up on my way home from work. I was pleased for a number of reasons... I wanted to go to the pre-opening and, as I’d mentioned before, I had been impressed with her and the way she handled the situation with my daughter.

Her name was Karen and she was 15 years old. As I chatted with her on the way home I was, again, impressed with her maturity. We both attended the Episcopal Church but she was attending a Catholic High School which I found interesting. In any case, she was still wearing her school uniform. The skirt was a green and gray plaid with a white blouse, She was also wearing a green cardigan sweater with what appeared to be the crest of the school. I remember looking over at her and was surprised at how much of her thighs I could see as she sat there. I really hadn’t noticed how short the skirt was when I went to the door to pick her up but it certainly had my attention in the car. The kids took a little time to warm up to Karen but once she got down on the floor to play with them they were OK. Elle was in a rush to get going and I have to admit I was dragging a bit, hoping to get a peek at her panties.

The store was way more than I had expected, not in presentation, but in the vast amount of products that were available and at the prices that were posted. I’ve told you that Elle and I kept a list with two categories... ”want” and ”need”. I can tell you that when we walked out of that store there was little that was on the “need“ list. It was very much like the COSTCO and Sam’s Club stores of today in that much of the merchandise was on tables, in bins or on shelves and not really displayed. There were no food products but just about anything else you could think of was to be found. We actually ran into the ”mystery woman“ neighbor (Denise) who was in charge of the store. She explained the reason for the ”pre-opening“ was to get the staff up to speed in dealing with the public. But as I looked around all I could see was faces of disbelief on the other people who were there. I knew that I was going to tell anybody I saw about the place. It didn’t come to me right them that what Denise was hoping for was word of mouth promotion on top of normal media advertising. It was something that I put into the back of my mind for future use.

One thing about Karen was that she was shy in the presence of adults. Taking her home it was like pulling teeth to get much out of her. About the only thing I learned was that her father was a physicist at a local governmental facility and her mother was in administration with the new County Community College. With two professionals as parents it helped to explain the maturity that I’d observed from her. As I left her off I asked if she was interested in doing more baby sitting and her smile told me ”yes“.

The other major happening was that work was started on converting First Street at the mobile home park to travel trailers. As I previously mentioned, the news of the change did not sit well with the eight residents who were in those pads. Two of them decided not to move out and when Dick and Ben literally dragged their trailers off the lot it took police to straighten the scene out. That was the precursor to what was to happen.

The new park that the ”boys“ had announced was well planned out. Engineers and planners had been used. But, they had decided to convert First Street to travel trailers on their own and it only took a few days to see that they had thought the process out. First Street was the only two way street in the park and anyone living behind it had to exit the park by driving down the street. To do the construction work necessary it would be required to close First Street. That meant they had to make a new exit which entailed moving storage sheds and equipment. It only got worse from there and I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that it became clear that my involvement in the project was changed. If I had any other way to pay off the debt I owed the ”boys” for my patio awning and room I would’ve pursued it. However, I’d told them I’d help and I did but it was anything but what I expected. The ONLY good thing that came from it was that I got to meet Ben’s wife. With all that was going on (the new park; making room for a travel trailer section; adding a new line of trailers) she was brought in to help out in the office. Completely the opposite of Ben, she was a very nice, attractive woman. Before children, she had been a legal secretary. I have to admit that she was a bit of a flirt. She liked to wear tight fitting skirts and on occasion I would get a bit of a VPL. I definitely looked forward to visiting the office.

To be continued...

SPRING... adjusting to the changes (Part 80a)

Alvin (the next door neighbor) hemmed and hawed about whether he’d accept the transfer to Texas right up to the end of the month. Millie was going out of her mind with his indecisiveness. She didn’t want to move especially with the school year just about over. But it had been plainly obvious to Elle and I that Alvin seldom considered anyone else but himself. He was “King” and his wife and kids were expected to jump when he told them to.

Even though we’d been forewarned, his decision to go was sudden. The adjustment for Elle and I was in that our “free” babysitter would soon be gone. Even though she didn’t like the idea she asked Dora (my friend, Jim’s wife) if she could help out but she was only available one day a week. Lola, our neighbor when we first moved in, had just given birth to her third son so she wasn’t even considered. Lil (she of the infamous picture) was working part time. Elle’s mother was more than willing to take them... at her house. The problem with that was there were some mornings Elle wouldn’t get the call from a school until 7:30am. She had to be to the school by 8am. To get the kids dressed and fed took at least a half hour and then a round trip to Elle’s parents house at that time of day was easily an hour for me. It was doable but not something either of us wanted to do as Elle would then have to go pick them up when she got out of school. The only other choice was to have her mother come to us and if she was to do that she wanted $5 a day. Elle only was only grossing $15 a day as a substitute and if we paid her what she asked it meant Elle was netting less than a dollar an hour. We decided that that was the lesser of two evils. Elle had worked hard to get a good reputation so that when she was ready to work full time she would have a track record to fall back on.

With that arrangement, there was something that neither of thought about... her mother would have full run of the trailer. That meant we had to make sure we picked up after “our ”fun and games“. Some of those games meant having a pile of soiled panties that we had to hide. What a pain!

As I’d mentioned we’d started going to church again. My preference was the 8am service because it didn’t take all that much time. However, at the 10am service there was a nursery for the younger kids. For quite a while Elle had been concerned that there weren’t any girls in the age range of Anne, our youngest, in the mobile home park. At church there were a few and Elle wanted her to get used to sharing and playing with others. So that meant we went at 10am. By the time the service was over and we’d gone through the ”meet and greet“ afterwards we’d get home around noon. Then I had to do my ”duty“ and take my grandfather to the hospital to visit my grandmother. That was made more tolerable by the fact that the nurse, Cammy, would provide me with a few nice VPL’s. But it also meant that it would be close to 2pm by the time I got home. It was like half the day was gone.

In any case, on this one Sunday the minister was giving his sermon when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see one of the teen aged girls who helped out at Sunday school and the nursery. She whispered to me that I needed to come downstairs. Of course Elle came as well. As I walked in the room I saw this teen aged girl, on her haunches, holding Anne who was obviously crying to one side. The girl was also holding another girl on her other side. As I walked towards her she fell over backwards. One or both the the girls had managed to knock her over. As she fell backwards one leg went up in the air and the other fell to her side giving me a very good upskirt. I saw the whole crotch of her panties. I was so shocked that I just stopped and stared. Elle, behind me, didn’t see what I saw, or if she did, she was only concerned about Anne. I watched as the girl tried to sit up and gave me a little more peek of white. With Anne in Elle’s care the girl focused on the other child and was able to get to her feet. What had happened was that Anne had picked up something the other girl had been playing with and a fight ensued. It was something that Elle had been concerned about because of Anne’s lack of social skills and one of the reasons why she was there. As it was explained to me I took a good look at the teenager and was impressed with her poise and her ability to explain what had happened. The fact that she was cute didn’t hurt either.

Easter was late that year. My mother had volunteered to cook an Easter dinner at my grandfather’s house but she wanted it to be served around noon time. That meant going to the early service with the kids. Keeping them still for 20 or so minutes was fairly easy but for almost an hour was near impossible so we left before the end. Elle wanted to go to help my mother prepare. It was perfect as I could then take my grandfather to the hospital in the morning and when the meal was over we could all go home and I would be free.

When I wheeled my grandfather into the hospital room we surprised Cammy because we usually came between noon and 1pm. As soon as she saw me she rushed over and asked if I could do her a really big favor. She had forgotten to bring some medications she was on and her parents were at church. She asked if I could go to her house and get them for her. Of course I said yes but I was a bit worried that I’d been too eager. I let her tell me how to get there even though I already knew. It was only five minutes away. She told me the key to the back door was hidden in the clothespin bag hanging on the washline. When I pulled into the driveway I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were clothes hanging on the line which, at first, surprised me as it was Easter. Then I remembered that it had rained the previous afternoon. In any case I had an excuse to be in and around the clothes. I ducked under the first row of them and found just what I wanted to see... panties. Based upon their size it was easy to tell which were Cammy’s. I reached up and confirmed that they were nylon. As I remember it there were four pair with one pair that stood out. The crotch was at least an inch wider than the other others. I wanted to know who made them and was going to take them off the line to look inside. As I reached for the clothes pin I noticed that whoever had put them up had used one pin to hold up the sides of two pair. I took a peek down the line and it was the same way for all of them. I quickly decided not to take them down fearing I wouldn’t get them back the same way. It was about that time that I remembered that I still had to find the key and get into the house and find her medications.

It was as I was driving back to the hospital that I realized I could’ve gone peeking in Cammy’s room as well. It was a very small ranch style house and as she was an only child it would've been easy to locate her room. I was mad at myself especially having seen the panties with the extra wide crotch. By the time I got back I’d been gone for less than a half hour. Cammy was very thankful and gave me a hug. If there was one thing I learned that day was the what Cammy had on top was real.

To be continued...

HEADED FOR SPRING... more changes (Part 79b)

These changes were somewhat mild in comparison to what was about to happen in the trailer (Ooops... mobile home) park. Even though I’d been told of the upcoming changes that Dick and Ben were planning I was not prepared for the breadth and scope of them. I don’t have any memory of the specific date but it was in early March. When I got home from work Elle asked what the big meeting was about that had been called for that night at the meeting hall. She’d been asked by a few people she’d seen while picking up our mail. We hadn’t been invited so I had no idea. I called Jim and Andy they didn’t know anything either.

We were just about to go to bed when the phone rang. It was one of our original neighbors asking for more information about what had taken place at the meeting. They hadn’t gone but had heard a rumor that all the “Golden Agers” (those over 59) were going to be kicked out of the park. Common sense told me that wasn’t going to happen but I did remember what Dick had told me about building a new facility that would be limited to those over 50 years old. I tried to assure him that he and his wife would not be “kicked out” and also promised to find out just what was going on. It bothered me that he and his wife were that concerned so, in spite of the hour (probably after 11pm) I called Dick.

I sat and listened for about 15 to 20 minutes as he explained what he and his brother had explained earlier. It was an “eye opener“, for sure. The ”boys“ had held what Dick called a ”pre announcement“ about their plans for the new facility. They had renderings of what the new place would look like and explained that all the ”pads“ would be bigger than in the existing park and all would have off street parking. An added amenity was that there would be trees on all the pads. Where the confusion came in with my former neighbor was that the ”golden agers“ were offered a chance to move to the new facility with the current rent guaranteed for a year plus the ”boys“ would move their units for free. It was enough to arm me with with facts to ward off the rumors that were sure to abound the next day. I think what really surprised me was that they were going to try to get phase one of the new park done by July 1. I remember thinking that was pretty ambitious. After explaining it all to Elle I remember wondering if they were going to go ahead with the travel trailer part that I’d agreed to work on for them.

Not long after that I got to meet the ”mystery woman“ who lived across the street from us. It was on a Sunday and Elle, I and the kids had just gotten back from church when I saw her headed our way. She introduced herself as Denise. She handed us a flyer announcing the grand opening of the new discount store up on the by-pass. Elle took a look at that while I took a look at her. I remember asking her what her hours of work were as I hardly ever saw her car when I left for work or when I returned home. She laughed and said she wouldn’t have set hours until the store was up and running. As she was talking I was taking a good look at her. I’d noticed her at the Christmas party at the meeting hall and thought she was good looking at the time. But up close and in casual clothes she wasn’t as interesting. However, she was in her thirties and had what looked to be a nice body. When she left us I knew I’d continue looking at her wash line especially after the store was up and running.

The flier that Denise had given Elle had some real bargains. The store was going to carry just about everything. Looking back on it now, it was a forerunner of the WalMart type store. The opening was scheduled for the first of April, a few weeks before Easter. I remember Elle writing down a whole bunch of stuff on our ”want“ list.
On that Monday all the women in the park were talking about the new store and the fabulous prices. Denise had handed out fliers to all the residents and it seemed like she got the desired result.

As far as work... without Linda we were able to get by but Jo had to step back to her keypunching duties, at least part time. Jay had gotten a lead on a woman who was interested but was only interested in working for a few months. Of course he had to get the ”OK“ from Leo and he sat on the request for quite a while which just added to the dislike we all felt for him. The woman was a forty something who, in her youth, had probably been very cute. Her name escapes me but she fit right in, probably because Jay wasn’t that choosy knowing that she’d only be there for a few months. By the time she started we had adapted to the new tape drive and other than an occasional ”crunch“ things were going well.

As I’d mentioned in earlier posts it was very difficult to do much of anything on the race car being that it was stored outside. With my agreeing to help the ”boys“ with the creation of the new travel trailer section I was given access to all their work areas much like when I was working full time for them. I got permission to create a lean-to against one of the storage areas and Eric and I got it done in one afternoon. It didn’t have heat but it did protect us from the elements, especially the wind. It was a very big change and got me really excited about the upcoming racing season.

To be continued...

HEADED FOR SPRING... more changes (Part 79a)

Almost every Winter I can remember getting a few unseasonable days. It was always a welcome happening, getting people out and about. I’d not done much on the racecar because it was stored outside. Eric, my racecar friend in the park, had already re-welded the roll bars and bumpers and was anxious to do more. Since the only place I had to work on it was outside, with the break in the weather he came around to tell me that we needed to do the whole brake system over. I still had race car money stashed away and even though reluctant to spend it, I did. I had no experience with brakes and told him he was on his own. He looked like a kid about to go into a candy store. To buy the parts I had to go up to the new by-pass to the auto parts store that the “boys” used so I could get their discount. On my way back I remembered Cammy, my grandmother’s nurse, lived in the area. I decided to take a ride by her house hoping that with the good weather there would be wash on the line. There was and I was able to see two pair on the line closest to the road. Of course there was no way to know if they belonged to her or her mother but it was a nice side trip anyway.

It was in and around that same time that the first change took place in the Data processing department since the hiring of Andre. Linda, the heavy set keypunch operator who only worked the minimum time required, had always been a target for practical jokes by Jay. Jay had always been annoyed that she made little or no effort to be a part of the group and the jokes were his way of getting her attention. All the ones I’d seen had been harmless but enough to annoy her. Jay came up to me and motioned for me to follow him into the hall. Once there, without saying a word, he motioned for me to follow him down the stairs. Outside, we went right to his truck and he pulled four milk crates out along with a small bottle jack. Carrying two of them I followed him to the front parking lot. As soon as we made the turn I knew exactly where we were going. Linda had a VW Beetle and Jay made a straight line for it. He got down on his knees and slid the bottle jack under a wheel and called for me to slide a crate to him. He did the same thing on all four wheels. He never said a word the whole time we were out there.

When 5pm came, Linda, as always, was out the door. Jay waited for a minute and then called all the rest of us to follow him. We hid at the corner of the building and waited for Linda to appear. We heard her start the car and then heard the engine rev up a bit. Then we all slipped a little further out to get a better view. We watched her put it into another gear and nothing happened. After a few more tries a guy went up to her window and pointed to her wheels. We watched her get out to take a look... and then scream. We were all holding our sides, laughing, when she saw us. She came running, (or trying to) screaming at Jay. We all ran but Jay turned back and told her he’d fix it. The rest of us went back upstairs, laughing all the way.

The next morning there was no Linda. Around mid afternoon, our least favorite supervisor showed up in the person of Leo, the Deputy Controller. He motioned for Jay to follow him into Jay’s little used office. Because of the windows we could see that neither sat down. Leo’s arms were flying all around and Jay just stood there. The confrontation lasted for about ten minutes and then Leo left. Jay stayed in the office for a few minutes and when he came out he told us that Linda had quit. She’d driven in that morning and handed Leo her resignation. Basically, Leo was not happy.

Jay then walked down the hall to the Civil Service office to see if there were any names on the keypunch position list. There were only two and Jay had interviewed both and wasn’t interested in either. The rules stated that if there were three names one had to be chosen. If there were less than three then a temporary could be hired subject to taking and passing the test. At one time around the end of the year I knew that Rena had asked Jay if there was any way she could get a job in the department. When Jay came back with his findings I immediately thought of her.

As much as I hate to admit it I hadn’t been in touch with Rena in quite a while. I’d taken some action that I thought would help her and, in my heart, I knew that in some ways it did, but those actions also created another bad situation for her. When I heard what had eventually happened I felt really bad and decided to “lay low”. With the new vacancy I couldn’t help but wonder if she was healed enough to work but wondered even more weather she would be willing. In any case there was going to be a change.

Another semi-shock was when Elle told me that Alvin, our next door neighbor, was definitely being transferred to Texas as of April first. He’d complained to me that he thought the company he worked for was going to do it way back around the first of the year. He’d felt that it was to get him to resign so they wouldn’t have to fund his retirement. Both he and his wife were local and both their families were local so this was a form of “legal harassment”, as he called it. There wasn’t much I could say or do.

To be continued...

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78k)

The trip through Macy's reminded me that when I was there the last time I'd been introduced to one of the lingerie buyers for the store and had been given the address of a place in the city that might have the Plymouth nylon satin panties that I really liked. The problem for me was that I didn't know enough about the city to know just where it was. I'd had a thought that we might try to find the place but decided against it as Elle was tired from not sleeping all that well what with all the walking and then the skating. However, the thought was still high on my priority list.

It was approaching 3pm and we were very near the train station. Elle stopped me and asked if we could go home. I was somewhat taken aback because it had seemed like she was having a good time. I asked her why and she said it had been almost two whole days since she’d see the kids. I missed them too but not that much. However, for her it was different as she’d never been more than 24 hours without being with them. I knew the train back home left somewhere around 3:45pm. I also knew that even if I persuaded her to stay she’d not be in a good mood for the rest of the time there. So, I told her to stay at the station and I’d run (literally) back to Willy’s apartment and get our things. She didn’t really like the idea of being all alone but also didn’t want to go all the way back to the apartment.

During my semi sleepless night I kept thinking about Willy’s wife’s panties in the next bedroom. At one point I thought I’d get a chance when Elle took her shower. But, we ended up taking a shower together thus eliminating any chance to sneak a peek at her panty drawer. However, on my jog back to the apartment the thought was revived. It took less time than I’d expected so my first stop was the master bedroom. It was the third drawer I tried. As I peered in I saw a waist elastic that seemed somewhat familiar. I took the top pair and peered inside. The label was small but embroidered and I knew I’d seen it before. Evette. I read the size and it said 5. I held the panties up in front of me and saw a nice applique but, having a lot of size 5 panties for Elle, they seemed a bit large. I knew I didn’t have much time as I had to get all our things, including Elle’s soiled panties, together and get back to the train station. I folded the panties back up and as I put them back flipped through the pile they came from and saw the same waist elastic on all of them.

As I stuffed our things into our suitcase something my mother had done when we’d visited friends came to mind. She’d always strip the sheets off the bed and put them in the laundry area. I was like a whirling dervish as I ran from one side of the bed to the other. I’d not taken my coat off so by the time I’d pulled the bedspread back onto the bed I was sweating. Already quite warm, I decided to run the first few blocks back. By the time I found Elle the perspiration was beaded up on my face. There wasn’t time to buy a ticket in the station so we boarded without. Just as we found a seat for two Elle whispered in my ear that she was still wet from when she’d gone at the top of the Empire State Building. I hadn’t given that subject a thought. I asked if she’d at least used a toilet while waiting for me. I couldn’t believe it when she said she hadn’t.

There was nothing I could do for her at that point. The train from the city didn’t have toilets and it was at least a 45 minute trip until we changed trains. I wasn’t sure there were working toilets on that train either but it was all we could hope for. When we stood up to change trains it was all over as I could see the look of resignation on Elle’s face. By the time we got back to our town the wetness had worked its way through Elle’s wool slacks. Because it was dark and there were few passengers on the train by that time I tried to comfort her telling her that no one would know. It didn’t work and I listened to her complain about her condition all the way home. It wasn’t all that far but she, for sure, was upset.

As we made the turn towards our trailer (Oops... mobile home!) I saw something that caught my eye. There was something on the “mystery woman’s” clothes line that, even in the dark, looked a lot like panties. She’d been there for about two months and all I’d ever seen was small towels hanging there. I remember thinking that maybe there was hope there after all.

After getting cleaned up and changing we headed to Elle’s parents house to get the kids. We called ahead so they knew we were coming. The kids were all wound up. I’ll admit I was glad to see them as well even though my plans for the whole weekend didn’t work out. That night I lay awake thinking of the panties I'd peeked at in the apartment. I knew I'd seen that elastic before and it was driving me crazy trying to remember just where.

We’d been going to church on Sunday’s. My preference was for the early service but the church only provided a nursery at the later service. By the time we’d get home it was almost noon. I was still taking my grandfather to the hospital and the only thing that made it somewhat tolerable was in seeing Cammy. There had been a number of times that I’d had an opportunity to drive by her home to see if there were panties on the line but hadn’t. On this day it appeared that when she’d last used the toilet her slip had not come all the way down in back. My grandmother had been fussing when we arrived and Cammy was attempting to get her positioned more comfortably. In so doing she ended up leaning way over the bed to grab my grandmother by the shoulders and the resulting VPL was incredible. The fact that her dress was tight to begin with and with one less layer of material between her panties and me made for a wonderful view. It made me make a strong pledge to do a drive by her house as soon as possible.

To be continued...

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78j)

Because we were both in a strange bed and the sounds of the city were foreign to us, neither of us slept much. I remember Elle getting out of bed and it being light out. The next thing I knew I found her climbing, from the end of the bed, up and over me. Before my eyes could focus I could feel my groin was warm and wet. I put my hands up and around her hips and, instead of the cotton panties that I knew she’d put on for her ”package“ when we went to bed, it was the sensuous feel of nylon satin. It only took a minute before were were side to side and I was ”plugged in“. But that wasn’t what she wanted. I have to say I was very surprised based on her mood when we turned out the lights. It didn’t last too long but, as always, very pleasurable. I had just rolled off of her when the phone rang. I told her to let it ring but she said that Willy’s wife had told her she was going to call. Since we were in the second bedroom there was no phone. Elle jumped out of bed and started out the door but quickly stopped and grabbed the dry cotton panties she’d taken off to put on the nylon pair for me.

I followed a minute or two later and I saw Elle standing at the end of the kitchen counter. She was in profile and I wish I had a camera... nice firm breasts, flat tummy and in panties. As soon as she hung up the phone I had a hand right between her legs. I wasn’t expecting to feel the wetness. It took a few seconds for me to realize it was my cum. I was amazed at just how much there was. IAt first I thought that she’d wet herself while standing there. I was also amazed that she allowed me to ”play“ inside the panties for a while.

It was while we were showering when I found out just what it was that changed her mood. Not being able to sleep she got to thinking about skating. But she knew she wouldn’t do it in a skirt so she decided to work on me to buy her a pair of slacks. Smart woman!

Willy’s wife had encouraged Elle to use what was in the refrigerator for our breakfast but Elle would have none of it. As we left the building we asked the doorman for a good place to eat. He steered us to a coffee shop a few blocks away. It didn’t look like much but I know I’ll never forget the place as they had cinnamon buns baked on the premesis. As we ate I was trying to place just where were in relation to Macy’s. After my last trip to the city I’d told Elle just how big it was and how I’d actually gotten lost in the building. I figured it would be fun to show her and to get a pair of slacks while we were there. Thankfully, the weather was reasonable for late February as it took some walking to find it.

I remember the look on Elle’s face as we walked through just the first floor. I still smile when thinking about it. I made her ride the escalators up to the eighth floor and back and I know she was shaking her head in disbelief most of the way. We stopped on the ladies clothing floor and she was overwhelmed. She really didn’t have any idea what she wanted and the total amount of choices didn’t help. When I saw a pair of camel colored slacks on display I suggested them. Not wanting to take a chance of not finding a bathroom on our travels she had insisted on wearing a total “package”. I knew that would create a problem as far a size was concerned. I didn’t want to pay for a pair of slacks that she might only wear a few times and suggested that she take off the package. I tried to convince her that there would be toilets in and around the skating rink. She finally agreed to take two pair in the changing room to try. The first pair were with the package on and they were a bit baggy. When she took the package off and tried them on they were really baggy. I convinced her to get the smaller pair and I was thinking that since they were wool they would be a bit stretchy and could possibly handle a “package”. Her coat came down to just about her butt cheeks so it would be hard for anyone to notice. We had a “winner”.

We grabbed a bite to eat on the way to Rockefeller center. I could see Elle was really looking forward to the skate as I would describe our walk as “brisk”. I paid for her skates and took a place along the lower terrace to watch. She took to the ice as if she skated every day. I was truly envious. I was always a klutz on skates and there was no way I was going to embarrass myself out there with all those people watching.

She had an hour but waived for me to come to the entryway with about 15 minutes or so to go. As she skated towards me a young boy went barreling into her causing her to fall. She was laughing by the time she got to me. I asked if she was OK and why she was laughing. When she fell it was on her butt and her “package” had buffered the fall. I thought it was pretty funny as well.

She didn’t finish her hour as the skates didn’t fit her that well and her ankles weren’t used to the rigors of skating. She’d slipped the slacks on under her skirt and then took it and her slip off. She decided to stay in the slacks as they were definitely warmer than wearing a skirt. We’d talked about going to the Empire State Building and even though her legs and ankles were tired she wanted to do it. When I lived in the city I’d never been to the top. She wasn’t too keen about the long elevator trip but once we were outside and could look down upon the city she was pretty excited. As she peered over I noticed that she was holding onto the railing with both hands even though there was a protective screen there as well. I remember wishing I had a camera just to memorialize the visit. It had been a sort of hazy day but it was now after 2pm and the haze was burning off. As it did I could feel a little warmth from the sun. I also remember Elle suddenly grabbing my hand and my asking if she was OK. She didn’t answer nor did she look at me. After a few seconds I felt her squeeze a bit harder. I was puzzled. Then I felt her shudder a bit and then she let go. I moved around to look at her square in the face and she had this guilty look in her eyes. It took a bit for me to comprehend but she’d just peed. Later, back on the ground, I told her she was probably one of the very few people who’d ever peed themselves at the very top of the Empire State Building. (Note: We were there at the top about two years ago and she remembered it.)

To be continued...

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78i)

When we had last seen her brother all he could do was to brag about what a great place he’d found to live. We had to walk quite a distance from the closest subway and the further we walked the more concerned Elle and I became. It was clearly a part of the city that had seen better days. When we reached our destination I wasn’t sure I wanted to enter. There were run down stores on both sides of the street and garbage laying in the gutters. Her brother led us to a doorway between two stores and we climbed a pair of rickety stairs to the second floor. It appeared that there were two more levels to the building as we waited for him to open the door. Walking in I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was incredibly dark to begin with. All the walls were dark wood and there were only two windows that we could see. What would have been a living room had but two straight backed chairs and a wooden crate with a small lamp on it. I was shaking my head as we were led into the back part. The kitchen had a refrigerator like the one I remember being in my grandparents house when I lived with them during WWII. The stove was on legs and the sink was stained almost orange. By the time we got to the bedroom I was ready to leave. There was one window and all I could see out of it was a fire escape. The only thing that I saw that was somewhat normal was the bed. It was a double bed and was made up. There was a single bulb hanging from the ceiling and other than his Army chest the room was bare. As he was Elle’s brother I kept my mouth shut. Elle was getting very anxious to change so asked about the bathroom. I am not exaggerating when I say that it was disgusting. The sink and toilet bowls were stained to a dark orange. Elle let out a bit of a shriek when she saw it. The toilet seat was cracked and stained. As I looked at it my thought was to leave and get a hotel room even if it took the bulk of the money I had.

Elle got some ”supplies“ and closed the door. As I stood there with her brother he asked what I thought about his ”digs“. He seemed to be clueless. Possibly it seemed like ”heaven“ to him after spending over a year in a tent in Korea. I don’t remember saying anything to him at all. When Elle reappeared her brother said he had some things he needed to do and headed for the door. As soon as he did I told her there was no way we were staying there that night or any other night. She gave me one of those ”...but it is my brother...“ looks but I was adamant.

I had a list of phone numbers of people who lived or worked in the city. Even though it was a holiday I decided to give some of them a try. One was the fellow (Willy) who had sailed with me in the tune up race the previous Summer. He was one who actually lived there and I got lucky and caught him at home. He was just about to leave for Vermont to go skiing. I told him our plight and he told me to come right over. Elle was upset but at that point I didn’t care.

Talk about contrasts... from a ”dump“ we found ourselves in front of an apartment building complete with a doorman. It wasn’t that big but I was impressed with the fact that there was an elevator operator. I have to say that Willy and his wife were quite cordial especially since we hardly knew them... Elle not at all. We were shown around and told to make ourselves at home. The apartment wasn’t all that big but bigger than the one I’d lived in when my parents lived in the city. I was happy I’d made the decision. All I had to do was get Elle in concert with me about why we were there.

Going to Radio City Music Hall calmed her down and since her secret fantasy was to be a ”Rockette“ she was all caught up in the dancing. There was also a movie and I have no memory, at all, of what it was or was about. In an effort to put myself in Elle’s good graces I suggested that we walk over to Rockefeller Center to watch the ice skaters. That was another fantasy she held, to be a figure skater. It didn’t take long for that ”dreamy look“ to come into her eyes as she watched. It had been five years since she’d last skated so when I asked if she wanted to give it a try she slowly shook her head ”no“. I remembered when she’d skated there when we were still in school and how much fun she'd had so was disappointed. I asked why and she whispered that because she was wearing a skirt she was afraid that if she fell people would see her ”package“. I pointed out that there were other women in skirts out on the ice but she just shook her head. She said that if she had a pair of slacks she would.

We watched for a while and then I took her to the automat to get something to eat. I’d told her about it after my last trip to the city and she thought it was something she wanted to see. The food was nothing special but putting coins into the slot and then opening the door to take the food out was something different.

By then I was looking forward to getting back to Willy’s apartment and some time, alone, with Elle. However, I could see Elle’s mood change as we approached the building. Once in the apartment she started in about how we’d said we’d stay at her brother’s place. I didn’t want to argue so kept my mouth shut. At that point I knew there wasn’t going to be much ”snuggling“ that night. However, the next morning it was all OK... Elle was smiling and anxious to go exploring the city.

To be continued...

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78h)

It didn’t take long for Eric (the former racer) to step in and fill Lance’s roll as the ”go to“ guy for airmen at the base who either wanted to buy or sell a car. The difference was that Eric had the money to fix up the cars that he bought and I was no longer needed. Not that I made all that much money but it did serve to provide me with ”pocket change“. Eric had been after me to get started on the race car but with no garage to get in out of the weather I didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm for it in January. The first thing that needed to be done was to reweld the roll cage and bumpers. On this one night Elle was being especially amourous and after putting the kids to bed she came into the living room in just her bra and panties. She would tease me that way but made me wait until she was sure the kids were asleep before she’d let me ”play“. You can imagine the shock when there was a knock on the door. She jumped up and ran down the hall while I answered the door. It was Eric. I knew better than to ask him in even though Elle was down in the bedroom. I stood on the top step as he told me he had found a place where he could use the welder. I didn’t have a coat and hadn’t intended to stay out for long but Eric had something in his car he wanted to show me. I’m guessing but it was probably a good half hour that we sat in his car talking about the upcoming season. He had the motor running and the heat on so I wasn’t cold. When I walked back inside I found Elle asleep on the couch. It was one of those positions that begged for a picture. All I had to do was get the camera without waking her up... and I did. I actually got two and she never knew it. One thing I’d learned was that when Elle was in a good mood it was best to take advantage of it before she fell asleep. Unfortunately for me on that night I missed out on the ”pay off“.

By the time President’s Day weekend came up we were both excited about the trip to the city. Elle’s brother had finished his time in the Army and had gotten a job in the city along with a small apartment. He invited us to stay there while he went home to visit his parents but had agreed to meet us at the train station and to take us to it. There were only two trains into the city with the early one leaving shortly after 6:30am. President’s Day was on a Friday and we had taken the kids to Elle’s parents the night before. Our plan was to return on the early train out of the city on Sunday leaving around 9:45am. That meant we had three nights to ourselves and I had plans for all of them. Because of Elle’s ”problem“ we packed extra panties and pads or ”supplies“ but I took the extra step of packing some of the nylon satin panties and a couple of fancy panties. I would’ve loved to have had Elle wear some of them for the trip in but knew it would be well over three hours for the trip so settled on a ”package“.(x)

It was a very wise choice. Elle’s brother was there at the station waiting for us but since none of us had any real food he insisted that he treat us for breakfast. Even though it was a national holiday and a lot of workers were off, every place we went was crowded. The little shop we ended up eating at was not an option for Elle to change her ”package“ so by the time we reached her brother’s apartment it had reached capacity.

When we had last seen her brother all he could do was to brag about what a great place he’d found to live. We had to walk quite a distance from the closest subway and the further we walked the more concerned Elle and I became. It was clearly a part of the city that had seen better days. When we reached our destination I wasn’t sure I wanted to enter. There were run down stores on both sides of the street and garbage laying in the gutters. Her brother led us to a doorway between two stores and we climbed a pair of rickety stairs to the second floor. It appeared that there were two more levels to the building as we waited for him to open the door. Walking in I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was incredibly dark to begin with. All the walls were dark wood and there were only two windows that we could see. What would have been a living room had but two straight backed chairs and a wooden crate with a small lamp on it. I was shaking my head as we were led into the back part. The kitchen had a refrigerator like the one I remember being in my grandparents house when I lived with them during WWII. The stove was on legs and the sink was stained almost orange. By the time we got to the bedroom I was ready to leave. There was one window and all I could see out of it was a fire escape. The first thing I saw that was somewhat normal was the bed. It was a double bed and was made up. There was a single bulb hanging from the ceiling and other than his Army chest the room was bare. As he was Elle’s brother I kept my mouth shut.(xx)

It was a very wise choice. Elle’s brother was there at the station waiting for us but since none of us had any real food he insisted that he treat us for breakfast. Even though it was a national holiday and a lot of workers were off, every place we went was crowded. The little shop we ended up eating at was not an option for Elle to change her ”package“ so by the time we reached her brother’s apartment it had reached capacity.

To be continued...

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78g)

I can truthfully say that I was shocked by what Corrine had told me. At no time did I ever see Rena as anything but a bright, ambitious girl with a bubbly personality. No where did the darkness of her life show through, at least in my presence. I asked Corrine if she or anybody else in the department had done anything to help her out. Corrine gave me a blank stare as much as to say ”No. Was I expected to?“ I knew I wanted to do something but I had no idea what or how. The news left me very upset, almost depressed. To me it seemed like nothing ever went right for her.

As I said at the beginning of my previous post, I wish I hadn’t written the information about Rena... but I did. I could write at least one whole post on what happened but I won’t. Suffice it to say that I did get involved. The results were something I have mixed feelings about almost 50 years later. It got very complicated and was a case of seeing good intentions go wrong.

Even though getting the new tape drive up and running at work meant more work for all of us we were excited about it. Other than a daily visit from Leo things were going well. At home I was living a blissful life as Elle’s desire to become pregnant was paying big dividends for me. When we received notice that Ruthie (of Jimbo and Ruthie) had a son right after the first of the year it even got better. Just about every wish (fantasy) of mine was being fulfilled. It was like “no” had been removed from her vocabulary. I was really looking forward to President’s day weekend where we would be going to the city taking advantage of the tickets to Radio City Music Hall my mother had given Elle for Christmas. It would be a few days for just the two of us.

It took a few weeks for me to catch up with Dick at the park office and his “news”. He had gone on vacation and as I really didn’t see eye to eye with his brother, Ben, decided to wait. I hadn’t put up a patio room for them since before Christmas and knew I still owed about $400 on my room. I was hoping he was going to offer me another way to help pay it off.

I knew the park was filled up as all the new pads that I helped them build were taken and I knew that adding the patio room business was to help keep the cash flowing. But when I was told that he, his brother and father were going to build a brand new park up on the by-pass I was surprised. Their idea was to limit it to “golden agers” (50 and older) and to move those in that age group to the new park. Dick showed me a rendering of the site and compared to the existing park it looked like “paradise”. One of the biggest things was that they were going to do was keep trees rather than bulldoze them down as had been done in the existing park. It all looked very nice and I felt somewhat honored to be told of the plan before it was announced to the public.

That wasn’t the only news. The plan was to revamp the existing park as well. They were going to take on a new line of trailers (yes, trailers). Starting in the mid 50’s travel trailers had started to become popular. They had missed the trend and the chance to get the franchise for the Airstream trailer, the “Cadillac” for the genre. However, they had just gotten a franchise to sell the Avion trailer, a “knock off” of the Airstream. To that end they were going to expand the “transient” (their name) area of the park and make it a featured part rather than an afterthought as it stood in it’s present state. The goal was to have that done by mid Spring. It was an ambitious project and Dick asked if I’d be interested in working on it. As I still owed him money and was no longer working it off by building patio rooms I said “yes”.

While I was with Dick I took the time to ask what he knew about the “mystery woman” who was now living right across from me. He laughed when I called her that. As you know, rumors, or the “skinny” are often wrong. The only part of what Elle had been told that was right was that the woman was the daughter of the owners of the trailer. She was not an “engineer” and was not part of the new electronics company. She worked for a brand new company with a brand new concept and was the assistant to the manager. The company was actually a local precursor to big box stores like WalMart. The company was going to offer just about anything and everything and at discount prices. They had built a 30,000 square foot building out on the by-pass and the target for opening was April 1st to take advantage of the Easter selling market. After giving me the “real scoop” he commented on the fact that she was a “looker” and gave me a wink. I decided that I would have to make an effort to, "by chance" run into her. I'd already been scoping out her wash line but with no results.

With the departure of Elle’s friend Alice and her daughter Julie, our oldest daughter, Jean, didn’t have a best friend to play with. Elle and I had been happy that Julie had come along when she did as she replaced Dina, Jim’s daughter, who we were concerned about. She appeared to be “slow“ and used questionable judgment. Another thing was that she tended to be ”bossy“ and Jean was very reticent. But, with so few female children in the park around Jean’s age there wasn’t much choice. I’d continued to be friends with Jim but Elle had not spent much time with Dora, his wife. We decided that Dina was better than not having any friends at all so Elle set out to re-connect with Dora. However, I still had some concerns.

To be continued...

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78f)
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An apology... With an earthquake and a hurricane all in one week things got a little hectic around here. To write this I use a number of “memory joggers” which consist primarily of family pictures, my wife’s scrapbook, a very poor diary (in the sense that it sometimes has large gaps in it) and most of the time, a good memory. Don’t ask me what happened last week! I often write a base outline and then, as rememberances occur, fill it in. I had written my latest one up into March of 1963. It was made up of slips of paper with a paper clip to attach them to the outline. Somehow I managed to misplace some of my “fill ins” and, in an effort to get some posts up, left out some important material. I’m going to write what‘s missing in a special post as some of it is necessary for future posts. I really wish I hadn’t posted the last two paragraphs of my last post. Although Rena is an important part of my story I didn’t really need to put all that in. I’m not exactly sure how to move on from there but I’ll think about it over the weekend.
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My grandfather was always generous to people who did work for him during the course of the year. That included the nurses who looked after my grandmother in the hospital. He had a way of eliciting information about their families as well as their needs and tried to get something that was wanted or needed. Although in many cases he gave cash but he always enjoyed seeing the response when it was something of a material nature. The mother of the nurse who had caught my eye because of the tight uniform she wore (Cammy) would sometimes sit in for her when she wanted time off. My grandfather found out that Cammy wanted a stereo radio, something brand new on the market at the time. He tried to get one from the local appliance store but they hadn’t started stocking them. Right before Christmas he saw an add in one of the city newspapers and ordered it for Cammy. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive in time. It came right after and he received a notice that it was at the post office and had to be picked up. Not able to drive any longer he asked that I pick it up for him and then to to drive him to Cammy’s house to deliver it. The timing of his request wasn’t good but I knew I had to. Plus, I’d wanted to actually see just where she lived so managed to squeeze in the time for the delivery.

I knew pretty much the area that she lived in but driving up to the house I saw something that caught my attention. The house was on a corner lot and there was a clothes line that ran parallel to the side street. There were no clothes on the line but, now knowing this information, I vowed to ride past it from time to time, hoping to get a ”reward“ for my effort.

My grandfather stayed in the car while I went up to the house to get Cammy. She was surprised and, without putting on a coat, ran out to the car. She wasn’t wearing anything memorable but I vividly remember her reaction to the radio. She reached in and gave my grandfather a hug and I guess because I was standing there, I got one too. I’ve mentioned that she had a nice full ”bottom“... well, her top wasn’t bad either. I was almost ready to check my chest for indentations. In my fixation on her rear and her panties I’d pretty much ignored the top half. My mistake!

As I looked out of my front window I had a side view of the first of the longer trailers (Oops... mobile homes) that were placed in the park. When the park was originally laid out the longest units were forty feet long. To accommodate the unit mentioned above the ”boys“ had to use two pads and had give up the pad directly behind it. At the time I remember thinking that I had the absolute best view of a clothes line possible. The only place to put it was right out along side the fence right out by the road. There was no way to hide it like the majority of the others were. The only negative was that it was one of the four arm, fold up type where a lot of clothes are hidden in the middle. However, it turned out the residents, a middle aged couple, never lived there permanently using it only on weekends. Seldom was there anything on the clothesline but towels and bathing suits. That had been disappointing.

I had mentioned that at the impromptu Christmas party at the park meeting hall I had noticed an unfamiliar female face. I had noticed her because not only was she good looking but also because the clothes she had worn were pretty revealing (at least from the panty perspective). The people she was with were not part of the group that I knew so I really didn’t know much, if anything, about her. Right after that I had noticed the outside light was on and had figured that the owners were spending the weekend there. However, the next day, when on my way to work, I saw a strange car parked out in front. I didn’t dwell on it and it wasn’t until a few days later that Elle saw lights on inside the unit. Milly, our neighbor, usually had the latest information but in this case knew nothing.

It wasn’t until after Christmas that we got the ”skinny“. The woman was the daughter of the owners of the unit. An electronics company had established an assembly plant out on the ”by-pass“ located to the North of town during the Fall and she was some sort of engineer assigned to the operation. No one Elle had talked to had actually seen or talked to her so she was the ”mystery“ woman as we approached the new year. All I could do was hope that my casual, but positive, observation of her at the party held up and that she would fill up that clothes line for me.

Driving into the trailer park on New Year’s eve I noticed a brand new sign. It was almost twice as big as what had been there before. What had my attention was that there was a name change. No longer did it read “TRAILER PARK”. It now stated, in big bold letters, “MOBILE HOME PARK“. If there was one thing I’d learned about the ”boys“ (Dick and Ben) was that they didn’t spend any more money than they needed to. I saw a light on in the office so stopped to ask about the change. Dick was just about to leave but he explained that the industry was changing. The park owners association that they belonged to had requested that the members now use the words Mobile Home in place of trailer. He went on to say that the association now used ”trailer“ to describe one that could be towed by a car or pick up truck. He pointed to the ”transient“ area just in back of the office that held a few of the smaller, towable units. He also told me to come see him sometime as there was more news and that I might be interested in. I do remember wondering what was up.
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Now I'll go back to the story... sorry about the interruption.
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To be continued....

THE NEW YEAR... changes ahead (Part 78e)

All in all she (we) made out OK without making a mess. We woke up to a Winter wonderland with everything sparkling with the early morning sun shining on the ice. By mid afternoon the ice had melted and phone service had been restored. We called Millie and Alvin to find that power there had been restored even though it hadn’t at my parents. (We lived at the end of a private road and were always the last to get service.) We headed back and were shocked to see all the fallen limbs from trees that lined the road. At home I found a note from Jay saying he was over at the office and to call him when I got back.

Andre had fallen on the ice and broken his wrist. Jay was in with Jo and trying to get caught up and wanted to know if I could come in and help out. I knew Elle wouldn’t be happy but for some reason I felt compelled to go. Being a Saturday there was no one there but the three of us. It was a little stressful at first as we decided on priorities. After that we pretty much worked on our own projects until we decided to break for lunch. Jo, as she’d done before, had brought in sandwiches. The only soda machine in the building was in the cafeteria which was locked. Jay said he’d run down to the delicatessen at the five corners. As I’ve said before, I enjoyed working with Jo, primarily because of her up beat personality. That day was no different as she jumped up on a table and sat there, yoga style, asking about my kids. Jay had left one of the machines running and it was a bit annoying while trying to talk. I walked over to it and turned it off. As I walked back I saw a beautiful sight... a fantastic DP (down pants). I don’t remember the exact color of the slacks she was wearing, only that they were dark, thus making the white of her panties jump right out. As I saw it the first thought I had was what could I do to extend my “peek”. I couldn’t come up with a reason to stay behind Jo so, reluctantly, returned ot where I’d been sitting. It had been quite a while since I’d had even a glimpse of her panties and it ceratinly “stimulated” me.

We actually ended up doing more than we’d planned which only reinforced the fact that we were a good team. Even though I had to put up with some “grief” from Elle from time to time, I really liked my work. Even with Andre’s injury, we were able to keep up and to even get the new tape drive operational. It was just before the monthly County Supervisors meeting that the Controller walked in with Leo, the Deputy Controller and Irwin, the Chief Auditor trailing behind. He went right to Jay and asked for a tour with focus on the new piece of equipment. He was to give a report to the Supervisors on the status of the DP department. I was not in position to hear much of the conversation and as I now know, having part of the story is sometimes worse than not having any of it. (4)

What I had overheard was Leo talking to the Controller and telling him that since we (the DP department) had been physically removed from the Audit and Control area it had become a “rogue” department. In my mind, any words from Leo’s mouth were venomous and thought he was making a try at getting Jay fired. As soon a the Controller left I let Jay know what I’d heard. That started a domino effect leading to Jay contacting the Controller directly. Long story short... Jay was told that he was in no danger and that he, the Controller, was very pleased with the job we were doing. BUT... it got back to Leo who had another “hissy fit” and came down to face off with Jay. I got involved and started yelling at Leo which was not a very bright thing to do. Jay, although not officially a department head, carried that status. I was merely an employee and Leo let me know it. I went home that night very remorseful. The end result was that we were paid a “Leo visit” each and every day after that. That was my fault and was not fun!

With Rena out of the picture the Purchasing Director’s secretary, Corrine, (The busty blond) became the liaison between the two departments. The first thing anyone ever noticed about Corrine was her chest, even me. Although she wore tight skirts they were mostly dark and not good for showing VPLs. After a quick look “up top” I would immediately check her “bottom”. On this one day she came in to get the daily report for purchasing only to find Jay tied up on the phone. I’d continued to feel somewhat guilty for not getting in touch with Rena and knowing that Corrine had been in contact with her asked for an update. What I really wanted was to find out a little about her living conditions and family. Corrine was reluctant to discuss the subject until I told about the trip we made to see her and the result. I guess that was enough for her to open up.

I already knew about her grandfather and the glass business he was in. Rena’s father and mother had married right after high school and she came along a year later. When WWII started her father ended up in the Army, was wounded and captured by the German’s and spent almost a year in a Stalag. When he arrived home he was given a hero's welcome and then he went back to work for his father. What no one knew or realized he was traumatized by his experience and was very unstable, mentally. After a while Rena’s mother left. Rena wasn’t yet a teen. Her grandparents took her in but she felt she had the responsibility of looking after her father. Somewhere in her teen years he was placed in a mental institution and shortly thereafter her grandmother died. Her grandfather was physically crippled by then, not able to run the business, and sold the homestead for money to live on.

When Rena’s father came back from the war his father wanted to build him a house right behind the business and they dug a hole and put in the foundation. When it became obvious that her father wasn’t “right” construction stopped. Eventually, it was covered and and Rena and her parents moved in. That was where she grew up until she moved in with her grandparents. When the homestead was sold there was no place to go but back to “the hole in the ground” where she and her grandfather lived.

To be continued...