CHAPTER 175 MORE PRELUDES IN MINOR KEYS. 1997 - 1998
I was going on this new thing called the Internet, in fact had started doing what would later be called Blogs on a site called GeoCities. I was also spending time in Chat Rooms. In one of the Chat Room a question was asked by the director of a repertory theater group called Hearts of Tampa. They did plays in churches and other religious venues.
their programs. I said, I write and next thing you know I was writing again and something other than business books. I sent a one-act play to this group and they bought it and added it to their repertoire. It was called Leslie in the Lyons Den. It was taking the story in Daniel and putting it the modern day. I school Leslie as the name of the protagonist because the part could be played by a male or female.
SCENE ONE
(Scene one takes place in Lyons' office and the area just outside the office.)
(It opens with Leslie sitting nervously in a chair, obviously waiting.)
(Immediately after, the Secretary enters.)
Secretary
(Stern and reproaching in tone.)
Lyons will see you now.
Leslie
(Jumping up, speaking weakly.)
Okay.
Secretary
Follow me.
(Secretary leads Leslie into the inner office were Lyons waits.)
(Lyons is pacing back and forth like a caged tiger, obviously concerned and angry. He takes no notice of their entry.)
Secretary
(Sharply.)
Here he is.
Lyons
(To secretary)
Stay and witness this, please.
(Brusquely)
We seem to have a situation here, Leslie.
Leslie
A situation?
Lyons
A complaint about you. Here.
(Hands Leslie a booklet.)
Leslie
(Looking at the booklet, reading the title.)
Sexual Harassment Policy.
(Looks up startled.)
Someone's accused me of sexual harassment?
Lyons
That's just the title. It covers more than sexual harassment. It covers anything that anyone might find offensive or demeaning. Had to call it something. Couldn't call it Company Everything Offensive Policy, could we?
Leslie
No, I guess not...but I never offended anyone. I never demeaned anyone.
Lyons
You keep a Bible prominently displayed on you desk?
Leslie
Yes, I have a Bible...but I wouldn't call it displayed...
Lyons
You read that Bible in the company cafeteria?
Leslie
I don't read it out loud.
Lyons
You make a public display of praying in the cafeteria?
Leslie
I say a grace before I eat. I say it silently.
Lyons
Everyday?
Leslie
I always say a grace at every meal.
Lyons
You know not everyone who works here shares your religious views. You realize some people are offended by this proselytizing.
Leslie
A lot of people read books during lunch. I like to read my Bible. I say a silent grace. I...I wouldn't call that proselytizing.
Lyons
It offends people. I've had a complaint. It has to stop.
Leslie
Stop?
Lyons
I suggest you read Section 6 in that Policy, under Company Remedies. We can bring a number of sanctions against any employee who knowingly continues to practice behavior that any other employee finds offensive. These sanctions include dismissal.
Leslie
Dismissal?
Lyons
I suggest you take that policy booklet home tonight and read it and make the right decision about this.
(Waves his hand in a shooing motion.)
You may go.
Leslie
(Turns to leave. Pauses and bows his head.)
Father, help me...
Lyons
(Angrily.)
What was that?
Leslie
Nothing.
Lyons
Oh. Thought you were praying.
(Exit LESLIE.)
Secretary
I'd keep an eye on that one for sure.
(Lyons shakes head in agreement.)
Excerpt from Leslie in the Lyon’s Den
Copyrighted 1996
Larry E. Meredith
Produced 1996
Hearts of Tampa
Tampa, FL
For the New Year of 1997, Noelle, Darryl and I visiting my parents. Lois was sick again and didn’t come. Laurel was in Ocean City, Maryland with a friend , where she rode a mechanical bull This was on January 4. By the 5th Lois was feeling better. Laurel stayed with her friend’s parents all weekend.
more importantly both liked and respected by people. I was one of the bank representatives in ACES (American Commercial Enterprise System, I believe it stood for, not certain it still exists). In the 1990s it was a continuing credit program for schoolteachers. They earned credits for taking a semester of ACES. Each week they would visit a different corporation. It might be Delmarva Power & Light (now Conectiv) or Rollins Cablevision (now Comcast) and so forth. I had to go do my bit wearing the orange facial grid. (I described my Graves Disease treatment earlier.)
WE always had a good turnout because the teachers liked Wilmington Trust the best. I’ll get to why. Our program was a series of short talks by four or five people describing different areas of the bank. Usually some one from commercial, some one from Retail, some one from Trust, Someone from Human Resources or some other area. I was the representative from Operations. We would each talk for about fifteen minutes, describe what our area did, what kind of attributes we looked for in staff and then answer questions. Afterward, we all went to dinner, which is why teachers loved us. In those days on the top floor of the headquarters was an upscale restaurant called the Rodney Square Club. You paid a couple thousand dollars a year to belong, which gave you the privilege of dining there and paying for overpriced meals, but you did get bragging rights as a VIP. Since it was in the bank’s building, also servicing as the Officer’s Dining Room. This is where we took the teachers. It provided a nice private room, attentive service and delicious food.
As you can see these were bright times for me.
But beneath such solid footing ran a fault line about to be shaken.
Torgua, Germany as an exchange student. On a bridge over the Elbe River in Torgua was where the United Sates Army coming from the West met the Soviet Army coming from the East during World War II as they invaded Hitler’s Germany. The was on April 25, 1945.
Now in 1997 my daughter was going to meet a student from Germany named Katja Noch (right). For the first half of the exchange Katja lived with us and for the second half Noelle lived in Torgua with the Noch family.
been East Germany, a communist block under Russian rule. Katja had been young when the Berlin Wall fell and was only round ten when East Germany gained independence from Soviet rule. Tae transition from Communism and Democracy was confusing too her.
She spoke excellent English, which was good because none of us spoke German, although Noelle knew some because she was studying the language in school. Katja father was a scientist, who had been forced to change occupations once the Soviets occupied East Germany. Her mother taught English, but had to switch to teaching Russian. Katja thus knew three languages. Fairly well.
school board, who she saw as “dumb”. She told us a problem now in Europe was a rebirth of Fascism among the youth.
Noelle and Katja kept in touch for several years, but I haven' t heard Noelle speak of her for quite a while. Last I heard directly Katja was working at the United Nations in New York. She may now be the Deputy Head teacher at the Deutsche Schule London
By the mid-nineties, Leonard Quill was thinking of retiring. He decided to only be Chairman and gave up being the President. But instead of naming a single successor, he created a co-presidency and named two men to be this two-headed monster: Ten Cecala and Robert Harra .
Fil Sherry moved here and there during the early nineties, always to a higher and higher position her wasn’t qualified for, and never really doing anything positive. By the near nineties he moved into Retail sales, to be a vice-president. One of the divisions reporting to Fil a small division managed also by a vice-president named Dave Ernst.
It was a small group, a woman named Deborah Williams (left), who was creating a new staff development program for the bank. who I was to become very close friends with.
Joyce Babiarz (right), who administered a sales tool called Gemini. There was also a secretary to all us, whose name escapes me.
I was destined to join this group called Sales Support as a Database Administrator.
The head of Operations for the Bank, George Craig retired, even though he was only in his fifties. He was my boss’s boss. His protégé, John Kipp became Senior Manager and Information Technology, which Operations was now retitled.
John split our division into two divisions. Walt remained the Division Head of Deposit Services, but one half was spun as a separate division called Data Processing. I continued as Operations, Methods and Project manager for both divisions. (I was also the budget coordinator for both; however, I now had a corporate title of Marketing Office rather than Operations Officers.)
This data preparation area previously had been under a woman
named Etta Harper, a wonderful woman who had come to the bank in 1945 (when I was four years old). She worked her whole life in Data Preparation and by the time I had come to the bank, she was running that area. But when they split the divisions, Etta was moved aside and replaced as boss by a man from the I/T area named France Shelton.
I liked France personally, but he was in over his head and did not last long heading Data Preparation.Meanwhile, he got into an affair with one of the women working for him, which eventually resulted in his wife divorcing him. He did marry this woman, who I on the extreme right in this photograph.. She died at age 67 in 2015.
France preceded to botch up the profits from Retail Lockbox by over-hiring and not taking control of costs. He soon went back to I/T and was replaced by Ted Garrison ( bald-headed Man on left in photo right).
And then Walt Whittaker, my boss since I had come to Wilmington Trust in 1980, announced he was going to retire. I had turned down some opportunities to go to different divisions over my first 15 years working for Walt, beach I loved working for him and I loved my job. My big mistake was forgetting Walt was 14 years my senior.
So in 1994, Everything was about to change for me.
people for a while. At the time Walt was nearing retirement, I was still the junior member of the group after about 14 years. Walt Whittaker (he died on January 8, 2021 at age 92)was a vice president and division manager. He had five section managers reporting to him, John Behringer, Anne Freebery, Phyllis Fawcett, Etta Harper.
Phyllis Fawcett passed away, and Teena Funaro replaced her. John Behringer died of cancer on October 21, 2000 at the age of 56. Phyllis Fawcett died of cancer on October 8, 1990 at age 58. Anne Freebery died, age 85 on April 21, 2016. Ernestina “Teena” Funaro died March 8 1919 at age 78. Etta Harper died on October 22, 2006 after working at Wilmington Trust for 62 years She was 83 when she died. One has went out of my head, but she managed Wire Transfer. In the last couple years of Walt’s time, the Wire Transfer group was moved out of Deposit Services to Financial Services.
It was starting.
Next came the pushing aside of Etta. Not long after Phyllis died. (Phyllis was only in her late fifties at the time, but was a heavy smoker and died of lung cancer.). She was replaced by another long-term Unit manager, Teena Funaro, also a heavy smoker. Then Anne Freebery decided to retire and a thirty-something named Doug Harder replaced her. The others in administration were myself and Rose Jones (who died in the Stonegates Health Care Center at age 88 on June 25, 1999,
who was Communications Coordinator and also my assistant. I had had an assistant named Linda for several years, who was a contracted agent, not an employee, but she had left to pursue her main job, Episcopalian Priest.
See, what you said about whom you know. It always mystified me about guys like Doug, and I don’t dislike Doug. He at least was a worker, but I never understood why he was chosen for better things rather than I. He had graduated from U of D with a degree in Food Services. He worked in the cafeteria at Wilmington Trust, and then somehow got a job working as a proof operator in the Data prep Section. Next thing you know, he’s being moved here and there, much like Fil, moving steadily up, while I was being kept where I was. Now he suddenly comes back to Deposit services as a Section Manager, two levels higher than myself.
At the end of 1997, in the midst of these changes, my middle child, Noelle, came to us saying she was going to join the army. A recruiter came by the house to talk to us. Noelle had to have our permission since she had just turned 17 and not of legal age to sign on her own. She gave as reasons that it provide her with college payments and it would help her overcome her lifelong shyness. We signed the papers.
having badly broken her arm in gym a few years prior, but he made it and was sworn in. She would ego for her basic trining when the school year ended in June. She was only a junior at this time. She would graduate in 1999,
No comments:
Post a Comment