By Brenda Shaw

The Oliver Credit Union was located in the old Ripley building near where Echlin Insurance is today. It was drafty and the roof leaked and it was full of all kinds of spiders, black widows especially.

One day our accountant was in the washroom when he spotted an enormous black widow. He came hurrying out and said he needed a jar quick, quick…a huge spider! We found a jar in the lunchroom and he captured the spider and quickly put the lid on.

For some reason (we were all kind of weird?) we kept the spider and called her Ernie…why I have no idea but we did. Ernie was with us for quite a while and then one Tuesday morning, Ernie was gone and the jar lay on the ground, broken. It was a mystery that was never to be solved.

A couple of hours go by and Margaret Green is posting the day’s work. She kept brushing her hand across her skirt and Al finally asked her what was wrong. She said she just felt like something was crawling around. See….we forgot to tell Margaret that Ernie was missing! Oh crap, Al says…I bet it is Ernie…move Margaret and let me look!!!

Margaret looked a little nervous on hearing Ernie had escaped but got up from her chair and kind of very lady like sidled off to the side and was about to sit down on her chair when Al let out a holler “I think I found him” and kicked the chair clear across the room.

Margaret sat down alright and ended up on her fanny on the cement floor. Mr. Travis looked out of his office with his half glasses on which made us laugh even harder until we realized Margaret was hurt and it was off to the hospital immediately.

Margaret suffered more from a bruised ego than any serious injury and quickly recovered but we never saw Ernie again. For days we would check under our desks and in the washroom, the vault, the lunchroom but no Ernie.

Twenty years passed by and the new Credit Union was now located on Main Street. Jody Seidler was posting the ledgers on the VERY SAME machine that Margaret Green used all those years back. For some reason, the carriage would not move and Jody called Norma Shaw over to check it out. Norma hit the reset button and suddenly the carriage flew right off the machine and out came a puff of smoke and HUNDREDS OF BABY BLACK WIDOWS!! Joan Thompson (who worked at the old Credit Union with us) jumped up on her desk and screamed OMG IT’S ERNIE! Of course, Norma knew about Ernie and she had to tell everyone who and what Ernie was!

Like right now everyone was on their desks and having fits! They had to get the building fumigated to get rid of the spiders and it was not very comfortable for a few days but the legend lived on…………could it be? Was it possible that these were ERNIE’s descendants?

We will never know and as for that posting machine, well it went right out the back door!!! And in case you do not believe me….this is a true story!!