Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Goofy Stuff

And winning ladies' hearts.

A mid-seventies post card from Richie (whom I don't remember):






















(Postcard text below—grammatical corrections mine.)
Hi, How's baseball? I thought maybe you would like to try golf, because your baseball isn't too hot.
Say Hi too Izzy for me.
See you both when I get back.
Richie
Hi Beth





Apparently, guys liked sending me postcards from Florida.

I'll be asking Backwoods Betty (my sister, "Beth") about Richie. I wonder if she'll remember who he is. I mean, how could I forget a guy who wrote such sweet love letters?

And who the heck is Izzy?

Where the years go...

24 comments:

  1. LOL! Love when we find this random stuff and go, "What the heck??!?!"

    Who the heck is Izzy? *snort* Thanks for the Wednesday afternoon giggle, Jayne.

    Hey, Izzy might know where the years go...

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    1. After I posted this, Loree, I remembered that one of my Jr. High/High School friends--Elaine--once toyed with a nickname, and I think it might have been Izzy. Still lost on Richie, though. Searching the storage bin... ;)

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  2. And boy -- won't YOU be embarrassed when he turns out to be one of your most loyal blog readers, under an assumed name!

    Did you find this in a stack or shoebox (whatever) with other stuff from the same time? I think you're kidding about the "sweet love letters," but part of me imagines that this really is a sort of love-letter-in-disguise, one that even he didn't recognize as such back then. Or recognized, but couldn't bring himself to make plain -- so he papered it over with, er, goofball stuff.

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    1. Haha! Then now would be the time for Richie to make himself known! I've a feeling Richie's moved on, though. Oh yes, his card was in a disintegrating shoebox, along with another postcard from my brother (who may or may not have been a friend of Richie's) sent from California, where he was vacationing. On it was a picture of men in Sportos on the beach, and a note reminding me of what I was missing out on the west coast. I went out a few months later, but I distinctly remember seeing only long swim trunks. I must have been on the wrong beach.

      Oh, a love letter in disguise. Of course, he loved the way I played baseball, I'm sure. At that age, I remember all boys being goofballs. ;)

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    2. I see you've made a basic categorical mistake, in believing that boys -- once goofballs -- eventually, somehow, stop being goofballs. Like just about every woman I know, I suspect that you got many, many love letters in disguise... trailing in your wake, a host of little boys left scratching their heads: Didn't she understand what I was trying to say?!?

      It's a wonder the two sexes* ever match up.

      _________________

      * Same holds true in many same-sex relationships, I bet: one party never quite gets how serious the other one is... because the "non-serious" one wears a goofy shell.

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    3. JES- !!!Truth: Because I thought it best to contain myself, to refrain from making the mistake of categorizing the opposite sex (not that it cannot or should not be done--but I didn't want to be the one to do it ;)), I stopped short of following the last sentence I wrote with something like, "not that this ever, no matter how old they get, changes." Ha!

      So, allow me to preface this with: I am about to present a major category mistake.
      Having had three goofy brothers (whose goofiness has not waned), I suspected the rest of the male population were no different. I remember, from a very young age, being aware of the boys who had an affection for me, and of the various charming or silly ways they displayed such affection. I received many letters, often ignored them, and, admittedly, enjoyed watching the scratching of heads.

      So, I thank you for addressing the Venus/Mars conundrum for me! Yeah, and I agree, I think most relationships leave us scratching our head. At least at one time or another. Really, I don't think the sexes (whatever the mix) ever match up, but, hopefully there are certain points, or little notches, along the continuum of a relationship that jingle in harmony, and that makes it all worthwhile. ;)

      Wow. All this from a postcard.

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    4. That sounds like a bumper sticker: It's all in the notches.

      Talk about making people scratch their heads. ;)

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    5. Just had to share this:

      Last night, Oklahoma! was on one of the Encore channels. I turned it on just as Laurie (Shirley Jones) goes into that long ballet daydream about ending up with Jud (Rod Steiger) -- unable to escape him. She wakes up, and there's the real Jud with the real her, reminding her it's time to leave for the party.

      As they're in the wagon en route to the party, Jud waxes nostalgic about a time when he was badly sick in bed, and Laurie came to visit, and put her cool hand on his fevered forehead. "Do you remember?" he asks her now. "Yes," she says, not looking at him. "I probably remember more than you do," he says. He's still trying to catch her eye, but she will not look at him...

      ...and I suddenly thought to myself: Oh, Jud. You poor, hapless goofball! That was followed by a moment of confusion: where the hell'd I come up with THAT word out of the blue?

      Then I remembered, and busted out laughing.

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  3. That's kind of exciting. I don't remember ever getting a personal letter from someone I had no idea who he was.

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    1. Ha, Duta- that made me laugh! I just have NO memory, that's the problem. There are little snippets of my life that have been stored in an airtight container, and I obviously cannot pry the lid off that thing. ;)

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  4. That was cute. I wonder what Backwoods Betty will have to say ...

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    1. Suze- And, tada! Below is sister Backwoods Betty! (I don't think she's going to help us out, though.) Ha.

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  5. Hey J-
    Backwoods Betty here, wracking her brain to remember who the heck Richie was. For whatever reason, all I can come up with is a very fuzzy picture of a guy with curly red hair and a face full of freckles. (Feeling a little like a crazy lady with a crystal ball at the moment.) As for Izzy, I think that may have been me. I even checked the Woonsocket High School Class of 1977 Facebook page for potential clues. All I could find were lots of posts about dead classmates. Not too many, thankfully. Anyway, lemme know if that jogs any deep-seated memories for ya. See you soon!
    -BWB

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    1. Oh Betty, remember the backyard séances? We could use that crystal ball right now—for Richie, and maybe the other souls getting press on your 1977 Facebook page. I refuse to look at mine. (If there is one.) I remember a couple of freckled gingers from those days, but I'm not sure if either of them would be our Richie. I figure he was a friend of Tony's and someone who played tennis and baseball at Bernon Park, to where I rode my bike every day of the summer. Who did I play catch with back then?? Still, I've got nothing!
      Izzie, though—think it might have been Elaine M.
      Thanks for stopping by BWB! ;)

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  6. Izzy was my assistant at work for three long, dreadful years. She got a little too mouthy one day, and voila, I have a new assistant named Selina.
    However, I have no ideas about Richie. You're on your own there.

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    1. I had a feeling that is what happened to her. I'll bet Selina is much nicer and more reliable. ;)

      Oh, Richie. I'm lost. Wow, that's really bad, isn't it?! But hey, you know, I come from a big family. We had a lot of little friends back then--in the neighborhood and all around. And I'm going back, probably, 35 years here! Ack.

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  7. Ah, all the moments we thought were indelible, wiped clean from the memory bank.

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    1. You got it, Susan. I'm afraid I never had any good sharpies to begin with. I must have left the caps off all the time. ;)

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  8. No doubt Richie went on to be a noted Male model before changing careers and becoming the richest venture capitalist in the world.

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    1. He did? Hmm... maybe I should have thought that one through a little bit more. ;)

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  9. And did you try golf?? I mean: no wonder that you repressed the memory of him - after that remark about your baseball! :-)

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  10. Britta- LOL! Of course I tried golf! How could I not? Actually, I like golf a lot. I've golfed w/my husband, and brother and brothers-in-law. But it's been a long time, and one cannot get good at golf unless they're on the fairway often. And golf takes too much time!

    That Richie didn't know what he was talking about. You shoulda seen me at bat. ;)

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  11. Yeah those kinda things are wacky in a weird way eh? I remember getting a postcard last year from a complete stranger (wrong address etc) and could not help read it (as i am sure every single postal worker from anchorage alaska to melbourne did)....it was a picture of a polar bear having a beer wearing oil drilling gear....yeah ok it was a drawing...and it said "Greetings from Alaska!"...
    More interestingly on the back though was a plea from a bloke called barry to someone called diane to reconsider dumping him for john(!!!!!), then something about how 'we should be together forever!'...haha..it was really desperately scrawled..sorry shouldnt laugh...
    Poor old barry....he didnt leave any address so im not sure how diane could have contacted him should she have reconsidered...
    btw..wouldnt goofy be all hot inside that plastic thing?

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  12. Jayne, What an amazing love letter. Sure to go down in history....I have saved everyone of Paul's silly notes to me. One day, my children will be posting those on their blogs (or whatever it will be called then...)

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