Kansas City did not get as much snow that year like the year before when it was piled up eight feet high on either side of the drive. My philosophy was that there not such a thing as too much snow sort of tempered that year. I had a lot more places to go and things to do than the previous year so less snow was a good thing.
It is an understatement to say Dennis was not very happy with my making an appointment with a decorating client on a Saturday morning. All the years he had traveled five days a week for Ford Motor Company had set us in a pattern of never leaving the house on the weekend. Since he was gone all week he did not want to go anywhere after he arrived home on Friday. Races and Company parties were the exception so there was not much of a social life. He also avoided being the sole person in charge of the boys from the day they were born. He was also concerned that we were supposed to go out that night with friends from Ford like I would not be home in time. Gads!
Needless to say driving to Jim and Lisa's it was good that they lived some distance away and I had time to reboot into a smiling normal person. I had to get over being yelled at plus try to get rid of the apprehension of meeting Jim and acting like I knew what I was doing. All the negative and scared feelings disappeared when Jim answered the door with a big smile and told me how happy he was that I was there since they needed a lot of help.
The house looked a lot different from the one I had toured with Lisa two weeks before. Instead of being completely empty except for the dining room table there were boxes, new furniture and things everywhere. The "things" were the fascinating part. Jim, a plastic surgeon in his forties, was a collector of many different things. When Lisa had taken me through the house on my first visit it was hard to understand that one bedroom was to be the camera room, one the music room and the basement was to be the theater. Looking at all the stuff suddenly made sense.
Jim had over two hundred vintage cameras from all over the world. They were to be displayed in legal shelving, the oak boxes with glass fronts that stacked on top of each other. There was a room with every musical instrument you could imagine and in the basement were hundreds of reel to reel movies, a projector and a screen that would cover a whole wall. There was the library/office that needed wall to wall bookshelves so did I know anyone who could build them? There were about a hundred framed photographs taken around the turn of
the century of the old west and Indians leaning up against many walls.
As if my mind was not completely boggled by all this the two story foyer as big as a basketball court now had an eight foot in diameter custom made copper planter with two huge Ficus trees growing in it. The coolest thing about the foyer was the Wurlitzer Bubble Jukebox filled with 45 rpm records in the corner. Of course it worked and to prove it Jim turned it on, grabbed my hand and we danced to some 50's rock and roll song. There were in addition two quest rooms, the master bedroom and the huge den/living room thay were Lisa's job to decorate in a more traditional manner.
I left there that day with some measurements for a few mini blinds and lots of suggestions for draperies and bedding. The thought crossed my mind that a "real" Interior Designer would kill for a job like this one but I don't think anyone would have as much fun decorating this house or enjoy being in the company of these two people as I was going to have.
Dennis did not ask anything about the people or the house I had spent most of the day at. He probably would not have been speaking to me except that we had plans to go out for the evening. By the time we got ready to go it had begun snowing some which made him a little more disagreeable. We took my station wagon since we were picking up two other couples for the forty mile trip to North Kansas City.
For some reason they thought it would be fun to go to a rather dilapidated bowling alley that had a bar with a stage to see, of all people, Johnny Paycheck. Now I was never in my life a country music fan except for Willie Nelson but I did know who Johnny Paycheck was and the thought of going to one of his concerts was less than exciting - especially on what turned out to be a very snowy night.
What can I say about the concert? I did drink a few beers just to endure the thing while everyone else was having a great time. I do have to admit to being slightly mesmerized by the way he could hold a cigarette in between his last two fingers and still play the guitar. He was the only guitar player I ever saw who could smoke, play and sing at the same time. Sometimes he would sing with the cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Maybe he had learned that during his stint in prison. Needless to say the music was very forgettable.
The fun started on the way home. A lot of snow had fallen while we were in the bowling alley. Dennis not being a winter person did not do a very good job of cleaning off all the windows before backing the car out of the parking space. He had to roll down the electric window in order to see. Naturally snow fell into the window opening and of course the window would not then go up. Have you ever had the opportunity to ride forty miles in the backseat of a car with a blizzard blowing in the window? It is quite an interesting experience and one you don't soon forget. The most interesting aspect was that all three guys, all three guys who were technical service advisers for Ford Motor Company, were riding in the front seat. It was a good thing I was too covered in snow, too frozen to speak or to choke the driver.
Oh well, at least the day was only 50% bad. Going to Jim and Lisa's that morning was really very special. They had no idea that I had never done a house like theirs before and gave me the idea that they had full confidence in me. It was going to be a challenge but a lot of fun.
Mother called the next day to say she would be there for a visit on Tuesday. Oh Boy!
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