By Elizabeth Hamilton
For about five years, the retired KCSB employees have been meeting four times a year for breakfast in Schoolcraft’s MarJo’s Restaurant.
After a year and a half off during the pandemic, the group met June 11 at Schoolcraft’s Burch Park for a noontime brown bag lunch. It was nearly 80 degrees when the group met in the pavilion, which holds several picnic tables.
Some of the members in attendance had worked in all three branches: Schoolcraft, Vicksburg and Mattawn. Of the 18 there that day, years of service totaled more than 400 at the various branches.
A former operations officer laughed when she shared about her challenges with computers. She said that when computers were introduced, she had so much to learn. Several officers worked together after hours getting things right; a technician was called in often.
It was Dale Garland’s first time attending the retirement lunch. He said it took him just two hours to get used to retirement. A former bookkeeper at the luncheon had just retired at 77 years young.
One former teller told about an older male customer who had lost a lot of weight due to cancer. Because of that, he wore pants with a drawstring waist. At the teller window, the strings came loose, and his pants fell down to his knees. He couldn’t get them up to re-tie them, so the teller leaned over the counter, pulled them up and tied the strings. The customer said, “This is a full-service bank!”
The theme for this picnic meeting was “design a lunch bag.” The winner was 95-year-old Marilyn Jones, chosen with her Elvis Presley bag. She explained that she went to the community library to find a book with Elvis pictures, made some copies, and even wrote some of the phrases of his songs as decoration. She also wore a pink Elvis shirt. To cinch first prize, she used her Elvis salt and pepper shakers and included her music box which plays “All Shook Up.”
The prize for first place? A box of Twinkies!
The group had fun meeting and laughing together again. And they agreed: “Working at the bank was like family.”