American Dreaming - 1982 / Part V

Well, the last six months of 1982 was a lot of fun. I split time between work, home (in this case that was somewhat of a nebulous term… my parent’s house) and Jody’s townhouse at the edge of the city.

My relationship with Jody grew serious in a fairly short time frame. I was astounded that a woman as smart, pretty and seemingly savvy in the world of business (and relationships) would find me as appealing as she seemed to.

We were discreet at first. I would come into work and spend time attending to my stated duties as a senior mail clerk (I made senior mail clerk rather quickly in this company… for some reason…) and then I would take my break and meet Jody either in her board room meeting area or in her office behind locked door. We were able to avoid the rumor mill within that corporate office for about the first two months.

We were kind of “outed” by an overzealous moment when we found ourselves alone in one of the demonstration labs… We kind of forgot about the security cameras. I still believe it was the security staff that started the rumor (well, fact in this instance). Our relationship soon became public knowledge. Jody then had some tough questions involving ethics and the like within her position at the board meetings.

She eventually broke it off when the questioning became too heated. It was a bit disappointing but, I understood and I don’t know whether we really had moved on from the initial physical attraction stage but, I was pretty sorry about the way our relationship eventually came to an end.

I left IDM shortly after the holidays in January of 1983. It seemed best to leave rather than contend with the moniker of being a “kept man” in the corporation and an embarrassment to someone who I still cared for.

I took a position within the local community college because I kind of got used to hanging around smarter people and that seemed to be the best venue locally that I could reasonably pull that off.

I had saved enough money from the IDM job to get an apartment in the city. I furnished it with the usual bachelor pad essentials… a refrigerator full of pizza and beer, a cool stereo system featuring a couple of 6 ft. speakers and a large sub-woofer, an interesting collection of bean bag chairs, air cushions and a king size water bed. I was also able to set myself up with a late model Volkswagen bug for mobility.

After the breakup, I was forced to seek out solace in some of my old haunts but it certainly didn’t seem the same. Much of the same “old crowd” was there. It seems perhaps that I had changed some after my recent experiences. I was looking for something that I couldn’t pin point or vocalize.

Next: 1983 - A new beginning

---Jim