Halloween
It was 1980 and my Hal was notified by AT&T that we were being transferred back to Seattle October 30th. We had been waiting in anticipation for this day for 10 years, since this transfer from Seattle to Longview and Vancouver was only supposed to be for two years and it ended up to be almost 13 years. I had been working all these years for two wonderful Doctors in their Clinic as manager and accountant. I drove from Vancouver, our home every day to Longview and back to Vancouver.
The two doctors were wonderful to work for, but they were very strict and conservative on how the nurses, technicians and employees in bookkeeping should dress and appear. The nurses especially should be dressed professional in white uniforms, dresses not pants and white nurses shoes. I was the person who purchased them in Portland in a uniform shop. It got harder each time to find the white nurses dresses. My last trip there – no more dresses, they were replaced with tops and pants, but luckily they were white, which made it a little easier to present to Dr. Neal, the older of the two brothers. His word was law in the clinic.
I had a difficult conversation with him, but the outcome was, he had to give in. The requirement though, his last word: “They have to be white not these McDonalds colors.” After a deep breath I went on my way, relieved.
In another few years I had to confront Dr. Neal again, this time no more white tops! Unless we could have them special made, they would now be in color. I chose solid color, like navy blue or light blue, dark green or maroon. So far, they were accepted by Dr. Neal, I could take a deep breath and went on my way.
I am telling all this for a reason. My last day of work would also be Halloween. I thought to bring it to a lighter side, since I was very sad to leave my Doctors nor did they wanted me to go, they offered me an Apartment in their building and a car to stay during the week and drive home to Seattle for the weekend. My thought was to dress up for Halloween but not sure as what. I went to a party shop in Portland to look around . I found a Witches Costume, all the trimmings, a tall, pointed hat, a big ugly nose with gold-rimmed glasses attached, a black
robe, a dress held together with a rope and a broom. I rented it for two days.
My Hal was out of town for his job and will come back that night of Halloween and I will pick him up at the Portland Airport. Time after work was short, so I left the costume on. Walking through the Portland Air Port, I got a lot of looks, laughter and “thumbs up” Hal did not recognize me at first, but when he did, he was shaking his head in disbelieve.
On Halloween day I left Vancouver in my costume and drove to Longview, hoping I would not be stopped by a Trooper.
I got to Longview and went directly to the Montecello Hotel where we gathered with both Doctors for breakfast and a meeting. No one recognized me, when I walked in, but as I took off my hat, the nose with glasses, they all stood up and gave me a heartwarming ovation, even Dr. Neal.
It turned out not to be a sad and heavy meeting, but lighter and congenial. I took a deep breath and listened.