The Old Quack Reminisces. Pt.3

     He stopped and thought for a while before proceeding.  After all, when you are an Octogenarian surely you are entitled to settle into obscurity?   He and a colleague once felt inspired to write a book that they thought was significant, but when he had sent it to an old friend from  the long past in the old country for a preliminary review the reply said, "unless you are prepared to strip yourself naked to the world , body and soul you can't write a real book.  Your manuscript is an account of all you are prepared to make public and that's okay, but it is not enough!"   He knew that was true..  Nowadays,his scribbles were mainly to entertain himself and to leave a trail, if anyone cared..  

     Mac Chase picked him up at precisely 9 am. as promised.   As he climbed into the car, Mac said,       " You know I forgot to take you out to pick up a few groceries when I dropped you off yesterday,  I hope you got by okay.."
    "Oh yes, no problem." he lied.
     It was about a fifteen minute drive to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on 11th Avenue in Regina.  It was directly across the street from the Medical Arts Clinic in Regina.  They parked the car and walked into the bank.
     " We have an appointment to see Jack," said Mac.
     They were shown into the  manager's office, which looked to Stan like a Hollywood "executive office".
     "Hi Jack" Mac said, "Stan just arrived from the old country yesterday.  He's on the clinic payroll as of the first of last month.  He has no money, so he'll need something to live on, a car, an apartment and some cash."
   "Stan, this is Jack Ink, the bank manager!"  
     Jack Ink, yes, that really was the manager's name.  In retrospect, maybe it was that name that turned Stan into a lifelong Fountain Pen and Ink aficionado!
     After shaking hands and settling Stan across from his desk Jack said, "Stan, how much do you think you will need?".
     Stan thought for a moment.  In London, England, when he needed to borrow twenty pounds (about $60 in those days), for a kerosene oil heater, the bank manager frowned at him and said, "You're just a newly graduated man, we'll have to have some security for a loan of this amount.  Do you have any life insurance?"
     "Yes, I  have one thousand pounds of life insurance. (3000$) "
     "Well, you'll have to turn it over to us until the debt is paid off."
      His baby daughter was turning blue-ish on those cold London nights and he thought he had detected a slight mitral systolic murmur when he  listened to her heart, so he was prepared to hand over his life insurance and anything else he owned.   He still thought that was the crucial moment when he decided he really didn't want to spend his life in England.  Perhaps that was good, because, shortly after he had settled in Canada, he had a letter from the practice he had worked in, in London England, asking him to come back and be  partner in the practice.  He had no doubts when  he  refused the offer.
      "Er, I really don't know," Stan said.
     Jack thought for a moment. "How about $5000?"
     Stan felt the room starting to swim a little.  Five thousand dollars!  How could he handle  loan  like that?   He almost fell off the chair.
    "Five thousand dollars," he stammered,"I don't think......"
     Jack Ink cut him off.  Don't worry, if you don't think  that's enough we can increase it to whatever you need to get started.."
     "Thanks, thanks very much," was all he could say.  It would have been too complicated to say more.
      They left the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, an institution that Stan dealt with for the rest of his life.  Just shows what a Bank Manager can do!!
     "Now that you have a bank account, we have to get you a car, "said Mac, as they climbed into the car and took off for Regina Motor Products. He bought a used huge Chevrolet Biscayne, no power steering or brakes (He didn't know of such things) without even a radio.  Even now he recalled listening to reports of the Kennedy assassination on a tiny portable radio that slid around his dash!
    The next day he started work.