we just may make that opening yet!

"Let me guess: you were at another American Legion meeting at Two First Posts, right? Are the new doors in?"

 

Not yet, but that should be finished by mid-May. This brand-new wall should be done by then, too! It'll separate the hall-for-rent area at 5511 Montgomery Street from the canteen and bar at 5509 Montgomery Street. And the nice front doors we already have will fit into those rectangular openings of the new wall. Looks like progress is happening!!!

"And is that Brenda Pough standing there, all dressed up?"

 

It is indeed! She and I chatted about those high heels she was wearing! As I told her, I used to wear shoes like that, back in my 20's and 30's, when I was going to school at Armstrong. Me and my BFF would go all over River Street, on those cobblestones and on those steep stairs, and not think a thing about it!

 

"Oh, I remember well! It's a wonder y'all didn't break your ankles. Who are the two fellows with her? Are those Billy Cope and John Parker?"

 

They are! After we went over to the tables for our 6 PM meeting, we were still waiting on a couple of people. That's when Billy whipped open his laptop to reveal more progress: he'd installed the security cameras! Hooray!!! We were able to watch Eddie Patterson get out of his truck and come on in - yes!!! I guess that means Billy successfully met up with Doug Andrews at the bank! Hooray!!! I even saw TVs in boxes in the conference room, so Joe Cetti met up with Doug, too! So good to see progress!!!

"Hallelujah!!! A new wall, televisions, security set up, doors on the way... and are those markings for the storage closet for event tables and chairs?"

 

You are correct, my dear! And Kay and Mike want to set up an area for a couple of dart boards to entertain the troops. They plan to decorate the wall with the badges of the different units at HAAF.

 

"That sounds great! Wait... they were there??"

 

Yep! And we spent almost 90 minutes on going through the contract they'd written. That was a bit of slow slogging at first, as they didn't have printed copies and we had to wait to folks to pull it up on their laptops or phones. Kay let me follow along on her 'puter. Who would have thought a three-page document would take that kind of time?! But, remember, Doug is a lawyer and he knows how things should be worded. By the time Mike gets the wording changed to reflect the rights and responsibilities of 5509 as opposed to 5511, it'll be good to go. Everything was covered, from which utilities were paid by which entity to who was responsible for keeping the bathrooms clean.

 

"Wow! That's a lot of fine detail."

 

Hey, it's all legalese, so everything has to be spelled out. After they left at 8 PM, the rest of us had a brief meeting, with the biggest item being the hiring of Eric of Post 500 as the building manager, in charge of setting up and breaking down for all events. Eddie asked if we had someone from Post 36 to join him, but Doug explained to him that none of our members were under the age of 75. Of course I spoke up then! "I'm only 67 and I won't be 68 until next month!" LOL! That's when Doug said, "I was talking about the men of our post." LOL!

 

"Well, they folks of Post 500 already knew that. You'd made that clear at a meeting a couple of months ago, right?"

 

Yes, but Doug had not been present. I think Eddie and John just wanted to clear it with him before they put any of their members into paid positions. You know, they were just dotting those i's and crossing those t's.

 

"Heard. So, what time did you get home?"

 

The meeting was officially over at 8:50 PM. We were all beat, but we were satisfied that we'd made steady steps toward May 25th. That's really important to Doug. It'll be his 57th wedding anniversary! My guess is he wants to have that special dinner here at the Two First Posts' canteen. I just may do that myself! Now, I'm going to eat the Spicy Salmon Roll I got from Publix earlier and watch "The Floor". Nice to look at Rob Lowe, ya know? (smile!)