Monday, August 13, 2018

MY BOSS


Thank you all for playing along with last weeks post. Seems from the hits most of  you thought my near miss with Elvis was the lie but the hike on the Appalachian trail was. It was something I wanted to do but never did. Again, thanks for playing.

Still have nothing new so this is a rerun from 2009.

Briefly after high school, I worked for a Physician and Surgeons answering service. It was often stressful for the people calling were usually in mild or severe panic trying to reach a doctor. We would contact the doctor and he would let us know who to send to the hospital, who he would call back, or who were to take two aspirin and call him in the morning.

Pete owned our service and several in other cities.  One day, the girl on the day shift stayed after I took over to tell me the latest news. It seems Pete had just gotten married and he was bringing his new wife by to meet us as she was going to take over running our office. Pete had given Sadie strict orders for us not to say anything about his new wife's face.

I asked Sadie just what in the world was wrong with this ladies face but she had no idea. Our office was on the second floor of the building and Sadie sat glued to the window on look out.

"They are coming. " she whispered and I rushed to look but could only see a blond head beside Pete as they entered the building.


 When Penny entered the room, Sadie and I were doing our best not to squeal like the teenagers we still were. Instead we inhaled air nosily like faulty vacuum cleaners and eased away from her.

The lady before us had a face that was one giant scab. Skin on the tip of her nose, around the eyes and mouth were a nice pink, the rest of her face was brown raised skin that looked like it had been burned or was very contagiously diseased.

She looked at us for a moment, then as best as she could with that face full of scab, she laughed. We "heh, heh'ed" a forced, uncomfortable laugh, wide eyeing each other.

"I suppose you didn't tell them. " she said to Pete between chuckles. "Trust me girls, it isn't catching. I have just recently had a chemical peel. I'll be gorgeous in no time when this scab falls off."

Penny was right, when the giant scab fell off, she was a very attractive woman. She was also a very open woman. Since we were often cooped up together in a small office, she talked freely. I don't know why but with out any hesitation, Penny told us she had been a high class call girl and was now retired. Perhaps she thought Pete had all ready told us though he had failed to tell us what we needed to know about her face. In our late 1950's innocence and curiosity, we timidly, yet eagerly asked her questions which she freely answered without guile.

In her working days she got $125 an hour and had the right of refusal if she didn't like the guy. That was a whole new concept for us to grasp. She said most often she was an arm date for out of town business men who wined and dined her. Of course there was usually sex involved but she never went into detail about that. Darn.


Sadie and I were simultaneously fascinated and repulsed but listened closely to every story. This was pre"pill" days and Penny had the misfortune of getting pregnant a lot, well at least three times. She had three children, all girls which Pete was adopting.

The way she talked, she looked at prostitution as a business like selling real estate. Sadie and I were a bit shocked and we never lost the EEWW factor of having sex with total strangers for money.  

One day Penny was telling me of some of the famous men she had entertained. She mentioned a prominent lawyer that had run a close but unsuccessful race for political office. The more she talked, the more I realized the man she was talking about was my cousin. I guess my face showed the shock and after she asked what was wrong, I had to claim my wayward, very married cousin.

That ended all of Penny's stories. She realized that maybe telling all was not a good idea. While I missed the stories, I really didn't want to hear about any more of her "dates" that I might share DNA with. Seeing family heroes crash and burn is never fun.

She had led a life I would never attempt but she let Sadie and I peek in to see just what it was like and to be assured it was not for us.  Hers was a cautionary tale that fortunately had a nice ending. Thanks to me and my cousin, she learned it was best to keep her past in the past and she and Pete became model PTA parents and had a reasonalbly happy marriage.  

28 comments :

  1. $125 per hour??
    Huh.
    I see advertisements for chemical peels and other types of facial help, none of them ever mention a giant scab.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. River,
      Remember, this was in the late 50's and the process wasn't as refined as it is now. Also, $125 then would be about $1000 today.

      Delete
  2. Wow! I don't think I've ever met a call girl. This is so interesting, I think. From everything I've read it's not a very safe profession to say the least. I'm glad she was able to have a happy outcome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops! I put the "I think" in the wrong place. Tsk... I meant, "I think I've never met a call girl."

      Delete
    2. Kay
      You might have but don't know it. More than one girl has worked her way through college as either a call girl or a stripper. They just don't talk about it like Penny did.

      Delete
  3. I remember this story ---so I'm going to go back to last week's post. Sorry I missed it.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Betsy,
      Yes, you have been with me for a long time. In fact, you guessed correctly on my last post when I first ran it. We have been hanging over the Blog fence almost from the beginning for each of us.

      Delete
  4. VERY interesting!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran,
      Thank you so much. I know she held my interest at the time.

      Delete
  5. You sure seem to have lived (are living???) a very interesting life … thanks for sharing with us. I wouldn't have known how to handle this one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ginnie,
    Maybe lived--now I am just gliding thru. I usually looked at these situations as learning periods.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a good writer you are. Your stories are always so interesting and so well-written.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Inger,
      Thank you so much. I am so happy you enjoy them.

      Delete
  8. I don't remember this story, and I know I would have if I'd read it before. I've never met a call girl but I bet she had some amazing stories to tell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joey,
      Yes she did but when she found out she had "dated" my cousin she stopped all of them. Probably for the best.

      Delete
  9. I swear, Patti, you make me wonder if you're making this stuff up. You have more wild stories than anyone I have ever encountered!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda,
      Ha ha, if I were making them up I would make them more interesting.
      While most of you were raising families, I had time and freedom to get into these situations. I have stories, you have families.

      Delete
  10. How did I miss your previous post? I had to go back and try to figure out which one, and I also chose the Elvis as the lie. Now this post is very enlightening about a woman who would have been a very good source of entertainment. I guess she was for awhile, until it got too personal. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Djan,
      On the last post I made an error so for about a day if you clicked on it you would get "The page you are looking for does not exist."
      Yep the personal part did kind of spoil the stories.

      Delete
  11. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to hear any details about her past life. I have lived a very sheltered life here in the hills of Arkansas! :~)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chip Butter,
      As teens in the 50's we were as sophisticated as the average 12 year old today. The only details she gave us were dollar amounts, places she went and famous people she met. We found that facinating.

      Delete
  12. I did meet and know a few call girls. My father had a few properties and one renter married a dance hall girl(she was pretty, friendly, and bosomic).
    One of my neighbor died of a mysterious disease around the age of thirty in the eighties. She was my age and exotic looking. I always wonder....aids?

    ReplyDelete
  13. DDD,
    Good to see you again. Thanks for stopping by. Usually they looked pretty much like anyone else, except maybe better looking. That's right, that was the peak of AIDS.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know many are very critical, but I personally have no problem with a woman using her own body however she wishes as long as it is her own free will. Despite increased safety from risk of pregnancy or disease, such a life is still very dangerous.

    I don't think the occupation should be so openly discussed with the employees of your spouse.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Carolyn,
    Oh yes, even the high end call girls risk disease and abuse. She didn't have a pimp but worked for a syndicate in Miami.
    She did cross a line telling us.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow, that is a great story. There might be more than we realize. Couple of us at work wonder about couple of people we work with. Haha

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have hiked part of the Appalachian Trail and used to see folks hiking it when I would get my mail since it went right by my mail box. Once I even invited a guy whose Golden Retriever looked like it needed water on a hot day and watched as it drank a full mixing bowl of fresh water because it was that thirsty. I'm glad I did the white blaze trail with my sister and both of our exes, but it can be dangerous. You never knew who you were going to met and we were caught in a terrible storm with lightening coming down and tall trees all around us. We got soaked and were scared to death of being walking targets for the lightening to strike. Our back packs got soaked and it was hard to walk. My feet got so many blisters. I don't know if I'd ever do the whole trail even as a younger person. I'm a hiker, but have my limits for a misery quotient.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dear Patti, such an interesting story and how wonderful for you to meet a woman who was assured enough within herself to share her life with you.

    Growing up a Roman Catholic, I never heard anything good said about women who had to work as prostitutes. It was only when I read John Steinbeck's books that I came to appreciate that this was a job that many women had to do in order to survive and provide for their children.

    When we understand the motivations behind our actions and those of others, a great dawning of Oneness if revealed, I think. Peace.

    ReplyDelete