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IT WAS WILD chapter 3 part 3 of 4
IT WAS WILD chapter 3 part 3 of 4
I said nothing about Werner’s absence Wednesday evening, but many in the audience did. The whole story was in both the Reading Eagle and the Pottstown Mercury the following morning. Werner and two high-ranking members of the Republican County Committee had been charged with election law violations dealing mostly with charging illegal expenses against the campaign. Letters to the editor over the next few days as well as a telephone poll conducted by the Mercury assured that Werner’s political career died in its infancy. Charles Hudson did come to my office for an application on Thursday and I had already told Angus to hire him. We could use a few more for our growing evening shift.
We prepared for our family dinner on Saturday morning, knowing that my dad, brother-in-law Pete, Sal, and Fred would all want to arrive early enough to watch the Penn State game on TV. Except for Sal, we had done this twenty times over the past four years. We greeted everyone at the door with hugs, handshakes, and kisses. I picked up my nieces, Andrea, and Ginny, for body-squeezing hugs and kisses then I repeated with Nelly and Allison, Fred, and Judy’s girls. They ran to the backyard with Sandy as soon as they were in the door.
We were in the family room where I made the first drink, reminding everyone as I always did that, they should help themselves to anything they wanted afterward. Beers in hand, I led our friends and family out to see the progress on our “greenhouse” over the pool and patio areas. The framework had been completed. It stood like a giant skeleton’s ribs extending from the house to the lawn. As expected, the successful bidder was Four Seasons, but they suggested a dramatic change in the interest of structural strength and aesthetics. Dave Specht brought the suggestions to me for approval, and I agreed. The revision would completely enclose the deck outside the living room, sealing it tightly against the house’s rear wall. The design would be slightly less expensive than the original and would keep chilly air and water out of the entire area. We expected the entire job to be completed within the next two weeks.
I had just brought a big bowl of chips and some dip to the table in front of the sectional when Mom, Gail, Sandra, and Judy walked down the stairs from the living room. I could tell from the expressions on their faces that something was up. “We were just wondering, Sean,” Mom began, “why you invited us to dinner today. Do you have something you want to tell us?” She and the other women all had huge Cheshire cat grins on their faces.
Scarlett and I did have something to tell them, but not yet, and not without pulling a few legs first.
“Actually, Mom, I do. It looks like I am going to win the election. I received phone calls Friday morning from the publishers of the Mercury and then the Reading Eagle to tell me that I was getting their endorsements. It looks like Werner has shot himself in the foot even though what he did to me was not actually illegal. Some of his other activities—well…they appear to be something else entirely.”
“Maybe not,” Dad chimed in, “but that rat who did all the dirty work should be strung up.”
“No…he’s been out of work and was about to lose everything.”
“That may be true, Sean, but we already knew about the endorsements. Isn’t there something else you wanted to tell us?” Mom was nothing if not persistent.
Under other circumstances, I would have laughed my ass off, but Mom was so serious. She wanted to confirm that Scarlett was pregnant. The problem was—I was not biting. Then my lovely wife walked up behind me, wrapping her arm around my waist. She leaned up for a quick kiss, teasing my mother even more. “I don’t know about telling you anything, but Sean and I agreed that we wanted to ask Fred and Gail a question—would you consent to be godparents?”
Mom and the others sat there silently for a few seconds until it hit them like a hammer. “Aright…you two! That is just cruel.” But then she and the others laughed as they rushed forward. There was hugging, kissing, back-slapping, and—yes—there was plenty of crying too. Somewhere in there Fred and Gail did agree. Scarlett and I had both been raised Catholic, but neither of us was much for organized religion which I thought of as just another big industry. As such, the titles were more honorary than real, but being selected to be a godparent was always something to be prized.
When the women started to talk about the technical aspects of Scarlett’s pregnancy I shooed them upstairs so we men could deal with the day’s important issue—the big game between Pennsylvania powerhouses Penn State and Pittsburgh.
I excused myself around five to remove the ham from the oven and set it aside for carving. Scarlett had plenty of help, mostly from Judy and Gail. My primary job was to stay out of their way. Carving the ham took me less than fifteen minutes and once I had placed the pieces onto two large platters, I took drink orders from our guests. Most agreed to wine. The four girls had milk—small glasses placed on their “special” table.
My house was big with oversized rooms and furniture to match. I had placed a twenty-four-inch leaf into the table so it would seat ten comfortably. We placed Fred and Judy and Gail and Pete on the side near their daughters with Scarlett, Sal, and Sandra, and Mom on the opposite with Dad facing me at the far end.
The meal went well. We had more than enough food and even better companionship, being in a circle of family and our closest friends. Not surprisingly, the pregnancy and the baby were the main topics of conversation. At one point Fred asked if I would train my son to be a wrestler.
“I might if we were going to have a son, but I am pulling for a daughter—four of them, in fact. I will train them in some of the advanced self-defense tactics, so they will never be at some drunken jerk’s mercy, but other than that I just plan to enjoy them. Hopefully, they will look and act just like their mother.” Everyone was shocked, but Scarlett grinned and agreed.
I gave my final election interview Sunday morning for a talk radio station in Philadelphia. The host and I spent almost ninety minutes for what I was told would be pared down to an hour. One topic I struck hard was fiscal responsibility. “I will always support board members' attendance at seminars and conferences. I know how helpful they have been in my own field. I also support bringing one’s spouse to partake in social activities at night. If elected, I plan to bring my own wife. However, any expenses my wife incurs will be mine, be they room charges or meals.”
“Are you saying that some of the current board members have charged a spouse’s expenses to the school district?”
“I have it on very good authority that those expenses have been charged to the taxpayers for a number of years. That must stop. So is the idea that the school district should pay for alcoholic beverages. Again, I have it on good authority that a $140 bottle of wine was charged to the district two years ago. If elected, I will propose a resolution banning the district from paying for any alcoholic beverages and I will expose anyone who charges any such expenses to the district.”
“Won’t that make you a bit unpopular with the other board members?”
“Probably, but I’ve been independent all my life. I am running as a Democrat because they asked me. I see no reason not to function as an independent in the future. I told the party officials that before I accepted their offer, they accepted what I told them. Bottom line—it is the kids and the taxpayers I will be serving and no one else.”
Scarlett and I were at my parents’ house Sunday evening when the program aired. I thought it went well and they agreed. I received a phone call from the show’s host the following morning telling me that phone calls to the station after the show were 94 percent in favor of my position.
Scarlett and I went to vote early. For some reason, Pennsylvania allows electioneering right up to the polling place’s doorway. In the past, I either ignored the people who harassed me or took their materials deliberately so I would know for whom not to vote. We ran into Henry Diefenbaker and Audrey Boardman, but neither was doing any electioneering at my request.
They welcomed us as they did the others, thanking them for voting. I kissed Scarlett goodbye in the parking lot, and we went to work.
They say that success begets success and that certainly was true for me. My contracts with Omni and John Deere led to more than a dozen new opportunities. That meant buying additional new equipment and hiring dozens of new trainees. It also brought a lot of attention from the press. I had received a request from the Philadelphia Inquirer for an interview and a tour of the plant. I agreed but told the editor that I needed to know the height, weight, and shoe size of any visitors. He laughed when I explained why. The interview part of the session began at 9:30 that morning. An hour later, clad in jumpsuits, steel-toed shoes, and sound-suppressing hard hats,
I led them onto the production floor where the din created by the machines was almost deafening. They spoke to more than a dozen workers, leaving just after noon with the making of an extremely positive article that was almost guaranteed to bring me even more work.
Scarlett and I joined Henry and Audrey in the high school gym awaiting the election results from the two additional polling places in the school district. Board of Elections officials accompanied by representatives of each party read the vote totals on each machine. There were contests for Congress and for the state legislature as well as county and local municipal positions. In comparison, the board of education contests seemed trivial. After more than an hour, all the outlying votes had been tallied and compiled in our central location.
A representative of the Board of Elections read the results, starting with the national contests, and working his way down until he read the results for the school board. “In Boyertown District 2--John Werner 484 votes, Sean Sloan 1,352.” Scarlett jumped into my arms, hugging, and kissing me before Henry, Audrey, and several dozen bystanders congratulated me. I congratulated the winners of the other two districts—one Republican and one Democrat, not that it mattered even a little. Both said they would support my efforts at fiscal reform. We shook hands again and I let my beautiful bride out the door. We joined my parents, Sandra, Sal, and most of our friends at Ralph’s for a brief celebration, teasing Scarlett good-naturedly about her ginger ale.
To be continued
I said nothing about Werner’s absence Wednesday evening, but many in the audience did. The whole story was in both the Reading Eagle and the Pottstown Mercury the following morning. Werner and two high-ranking members of the Republican County Committee had been charged with election law violations dealing mostly with charging illegal expenses against the campaign. Letters to the editor over the next few days as well as a telephone poll conducted by the Mercury assured that Werner’s political career died in its infancy. Charles Hudson did come to my office for an application on Thursday and I had already told Angus to hire him. We could use a few more for our growing evening shift.
We prepared for our family dinner on Saturday morning, knowing that my dad, brother-in-law Pete, Sal, and Fred would all want to arrive early enough to watch the Penn State game on TV. Except for Sal, we had done this twenty times over the past four years. We greeted everyone at the door with hugs, handshakes, and kisses. I picked up my nieces, Andrea, and Ginny, for body-squeezing hugs and kisses then I repeated with Nelly and Allison, Fred, and Judy’s girls. They ran to the backyard with Sandy as soon as they were in the door.
We were in the family room where I made the first drink, reminding everyone as I always did that, they should help themselves to anything they wanted afterward. Beers in hand, I led our friends and family out to see the progress on our “greenhouse” over the pool and patio areas. The framework had been completed. It stood like a giant skeleton’s ribs extending from the house to the lawn. As expected, the successful bidder was Four Seasons, but they suggested a dramatic change in the interest of structural strength and aesthetics. Dave Specht brought the suggestions to me for approval, and I agreed. The revision would completely enclose the deck outside the living room, sealing it tightly against the house’s rear wall. The design would be slightly less expensive than the original and would keep chilly air and water out of the entire area. We expected the entire job to be completed within the next two weeks.
I had just brought a big bowl of chips and some dip to the table in front of the sectional when Mom, Gail, Sandra, and Judy walked down the stairs from the living room. I could tell from the expressions on their faces that something was up. “We were just wondering, Sean,” Mom began, “why you invited us to dinner today. Do you have something you want to tell us?” She and the other women all had huge Cheshire cat grins on their faces.
Scarlett and I did have something to tell them, but not yet, and not without pulling a few legs first.
“Actually, Mom, I do. It looks like I am going to win the election. I received phone calls Friday morning from the publishers of the Mercury and then the Reading Eagle to tell me that I was getting their endorsements. It looks like Werner has shot himself in the foot even though what he did to me was not actually illegal. Some of his other activities—well…they appear to be something else entirely.”
“Maybe not,” Dad chimed in, “but that rat who did all the dirty work should be strung up.”
“No…he’s been out of work and was about to lose everything.”
“That may be true, Sean, but we already knew about the endorsements. Isn’t there something else you wanted to tell us?” Mom was nothing if not persistent.
Under other circumstances, I would have laughed my ass off, but Mom was so serious. She wanted to confirm that Scarlett was pregnant. The problem was—I was not biting. Then my lovely wife walked up behind me, wrapping her arm around my waist. She leaned up for a quick kiss, teasing my mother even more. “I don’t know about telling you anything, but Sean and I agreed that we wanted to ask Fred and Gail a question—would you consent to be godparents?”
Mom and the others sat there silently for a few seconds until it hit them like a hammer. “Aright…you two! That is just cruel.” But then she and the others laughed as they rushed forward. There was hugging, kissing, back-slapping, and—yes—there was plenty of crying too. Somewhere in there Fred and Gail did agree. Scarlett and I had both been raised Catholic, but neither of us was much for organized religion which I thought of as just another big industry. As such, the titles were more honorary than real, but being selected to be a godparent was always something to be prized.
When the women started to talk about the technical aspects of Scarlett’s pregnancy I shooed them upstairs so we men could deal with the day’s important issue—the big game between Pennsylvania powerhouses Penn State and Pittsburgh.
I excused myself around five to remove the ham from the oven and set it aside for carving. Scarlett had plenty of help, mostly from Judy and Gail. My primary job was to stay out of their way. Carving the ham took me less than fifteen minutes and once I had placed the pieces onto two large platters, I took drink orders from our guests. Most agreed to wine. The four girls had milk—small glasses placed on their “special” table.
My house was big with oversized rooms and furniture to match. I had placed a twenty-four-inch leaf into the table so it would seat ten comfortably. We placed Fred and Judy and Gail and Pete on the side near their daughters with Scarlett, Sal, and Sandra, and Mom on the opposite with Dad facing me at the far end.
The meal went well. We had more than enough food and even better companionship, being in a circle of family and our closest friends. Not surprisingly, the pregnancy and the baby were the main topics of conversation. At one point Fred asked if I would train my son to be a wrestler.
“I might if we were going to have a son, but I am pulling for a daughter—four of them, in fact. I will train them in some of the advanced self-defense tactics, so they will never be at some drunken jerk’s mercy, but other than that I just plan to enjoy them. Hopefully, they will look and act just like their mother.” Everyone was shocked, but Scarlett grinned and agreed.
I gave my final election interview Sunday morning for a talk radio station in Philadelphia. The host and I spent almost ninety minutes for what I was told would be pared down to an hour. One topic I struck hard was fiscal responsibility. “I will always support board members' attendance at seminars and conferences. I know how helpful they have been in my own field. I also support bringing one’s spouse to partake in social activities at night. If elected, I plan to bring my own wife. However, any expenses my wife incurs will be mine, be they room charges or meals.”
“Are you saying that some of the current board members have charged a spouse’s expenses to the school district?”
“I have it on very good authority that those expenses have been charged to the taxpayers for a number of years. That must stop. So is the idea that the school district should pay for alcoholic beverages. Again, I have it on good authority that a $140 bottle of wine was charged to the district two years ago. If elected, I will propose a resolution banning the district from paying for any alcoholic beverages and I will expose anyone who charges any such expenses to the district.”
“Won’t that make you a bit unpopular with the other board members?”
“Probably, but I’ve been independent all my life. I am running as a Democrat because they asked me. I see no reason not to function as an independent in the future. I told the party officials that before I accepted their offer, they accepted what I told them. Bottom line—it is the kids and the taxpayers I will be serving and no one else.”
Scarlett and I were at my parents’ house Sunday evening when the program aired. I thought it went well and they agreed. I received a phone call from the show’s host the following morning telling me that phone calls to the station after the show were 94 percent in favor of my position.
Scarlett and I went to vote early. For some reason, Pennsylvania allows electioneering right up to the polling place’s doorway. In the past, I either ignored the people who harassed me or took their materials deliberately so I would know for whom not to vote. We ran into Henry Diefenbaker and Audrey Boardman, but neither was doing any electioneering at my request.
They welcomed us as they did the others, thanking them for voting. I kissed Scarlett goodbye in the parking lot, and we went to work.
They say that success begets success and that certainly was true for me. My contracts with Omni and John Deere led to more than a dozen new opportunities. That meant buying additional new equipment and hiring dozens of new trainees. It also brought a lot of attention from the press. I had received a request from the Philadelphia Inquirer for an interview and a tour of the plant. I agreed but told the editor that I needed to know the height, weight, and shoe size of any visitors. He laughed when I explained why. The interview part of the session began at 9:30 that morning. An hour later, clad in jumpsuits, steel-toed shoes, and sound-suppressing hard hats,
I led them onto the production floor where the din created by the machines was almost deafening. They spoke to more than a dozen workers, leaving just after noon with the making of an extremely positive article that was almost guaranteed to bring me even more work.
Scarlett and I joined Henry and Audrey in the high school gym awaiting the election results from the two additional polling places in the school district. Board of Elections officials accompanied by representatives of each party read the vote totals on each machine. There were contests for Congress and for the state legislature as well as county and local municipal positions. In comparison, the board of education contests seemed trivial. After more than an hour, all the outlying votes had been tallied and compiled in our central location.
A representative of the Board of Elections read the results, starting with the national contests, and working his way down until he read the results for the school board. “In Boyertown District 2--John Werner 484 votes, Sean Sloan 1,352.” Scarlett jumped into my arms, hugging, and kissing me before Henry, Audrey, and several dozen bystanders congratulated me. I congratulated the winners of the other two districts—one Republican and one Democrat, not that it mattered even a little. Both said they would support my efforts at fiscal reform. We shook hands again and I let my beautiful bride out the door. We joined my parents, Sandra, Sal, and most of our friends at Ralph’s for a brief celebration, teasing Scarlett good-naturedly about her ginger ale.
To be continued
Published 5th Oct 2022
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6th Oct 2022 4:58am
I love it... you have been on a poetic roll ...your musing is up to par, readable and a joy to always read
6th Oct 2022 2:45pm
