A busy week

This has been quite a week, at least the latter part of the week. I received a letter from the First National Bank of Colorado in Tuesday's mail. The message was to inform me the tax laws had changed with respect to IRA accounts and that I must fill out the enclosed form. To make it easier a copy of the original form was enclosed. The so-called original form looked nothing like MY original form, including specifically the beneficiaries. Robert was included as were two other people of whom I had never heard. Also included were the Social Security numbers and birth dates of all of the beneficiaries, including Robert. I was shocked, to say the least.

My first step was to get on Google and locate one of the unknown beneficiaries. I talked with his wife who said that her husband had no account at that bank nor was he, as far as she knew, a beneficiary of anyone who had an account at that bank. The other person on my account turned out to be her mother-in-law, Francis. Francis called me shortly thereafter and said that her husband had an IRA at that bank and his was screwed up too, but only in that she was not the primary beneficiary as she should have been and a couple of their kids had been left off as contingent beneficiaries.

The next day, Wednesday, I went to the bank. I asked to speak with the president of the bank and was told he was unavailable. I then said, "I want to speak to an officer of this bank, and if that doesn't happen I'm going to the press!" That didn't happen. I talked with a "Senior Personal Banker" and withdrew my money from the bank. She was understanding and couldn't understand how this all had happened. She was well aware of the disaster. I left with my money and called the Daily Camera.

The reporter for the Camera was happy to take my story and the story appeared the next day, Thursday on the front page of the Local Section of the paper. From Betty Wilson, I have heard the story also made the 10 o'clock news.

My next step was to write to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Jeanne put me on to them.

I have calmed down now, but I was really raving there for awhile.

Yesterday, I went to town, had coffee with Jo and her friend, Leslie who is just back from a year in the Peace Corp in Kazakhistan and is off in another month to another Moldavia where she and her husband both will be teaching English. She had some really interesting stories to tell. I really think it would be interesting to do that for a year, but it would be very hard, too.

In the afternoon, I went to the Carnegie Library where I hadn't been since November and spent a couple of hours scanning pictures. Some of the pictures scanned while I was gone are so bad that you can't see them. She scanners just scanned; they made no attempt to improve them with Photoshop. I shall gradually re-do the worst of them.

My mother modeling

This is a picture of my mom modeling clothes that she has made from fabric that my dad had woven. Note the lovely wool overcoat lined with yellow cashmere. Dad did not weave the cashmere. Mom made the hat, the dress and the coat. She took a special tailoring class so that she could produce professional garments from the lovely fabric dad was turning out. More about them both in later blogs.










Rhoda Taylor Torrance Denison, 1952

My dad

This is a picture of my dad taken in 1951. Dad started weaving in 1948 or 1949. All through my childhood he would come home from work and take a 20-30 minute nap before supper. (We had supper, dinner only on Sunday as a mid-day meal.) As anyone who has taught or lived with someone who has you know how stressful it can be. By 1948 Dad was principal of Charlotte High School, but that was also a job filled with stress. Someone loaned him a small table loom and he discovered he very much enjoyed designing patterns and setting them up on the small loom. In 1951, the day Clark was born, his new full-size loom was delivered.

He loved to weave fabric for my mother to make into coats, suits, wall hangings, and place mats. He wove the fabric for my "going away" suit when I was married. Sadly, I haven't saved it. I gave it away many years ago when the style was outdated. I still have a few place-mats and I think Connie may have a wall hanging.