Friday, April 27, 2012

Thank Goodness for Friday

It's Friday and I'm joining Mrs. 4444 for Friday Fragments.  




I'm late, but I'm here!  After a perfectly terrible week, I'm sitting out in the back porch with the superhero writing my Friday Fragments post.  I hope there's a fragment left of my poor old brain.  The superhero is playing Sudoku and I came out with my computer and told him I would write my Friday Fragments while he played Sudoku.  When I told him that, his reply was Friday Framents???  Then he said I don't even know you!  I said thank you, that's great blog fodder and then he said you know I'm copyrighted!
That man knew I needed a laugh!


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So did I say it's been a bad week?  Instead of telling you about that, I thought I'll tell you a funny story from my past.  And believe me, there is more than one!


When I was in the ninth grade, I went to a dance at our local national guard armory and met a cute guy dressed in madras pants.  **Note....if you don't know what madras pants are stop reading here.**
In today's slang, we started "going out" which means he wrote me notes and called me on the phone.  He mostly called when I was babysitting.  I stayed with a young girl two nights a week while her  mother went to college.  They had a party line which wasn't much different from what we had since I had five brothers and sisters by this time and we had one rotary dial phone on the wall in the kitchen.  So much for privacy.  We'll just say I didn't observe the party line rules.  Even though he was a nice boy, we're going to call him Stalker for the sake of this story.  


Stalker went to a high school on the other side of town and we basically never actually saw one another.  He would send me notes by someone and the notes read "I love you" and that's all......he filled up a whole piece of notebook paper with I love you. Try to remember, he hardly even knew me and I was fourteen.  I think I might have met him at our local theatre once during our brief courtship.


Bored with his notes, I decided to break up and sent him a note telling him we were done with this relationship that never actually started.
I was maybe a tiny bit dramatic in those days.....I WAS fourteen....and my note may or may not have been filled with said drama.


Fast forward about eighteen or twenty years.  Newly divorced, I got a call at work one day from my mother laughing hysterically.  I had received a manila envelope in the mail addressed to me by my maiden name and she and my aunt decided they would open my personal, private mail!  Too curious to wait until the end of the day, I took my lunch hour and flew went to mama's house.  


My mama and her sister were still in stitches about this mysterious manila envelope I had received in the mail.  After giving a lecture on the dangers of violating federal law by opening my mail, I took a look in the envelope and took out the contents.  


To my surprise, out came the infamous break up note LAMINATED in it's original form with a note telling me Stalker had seen that I was divorced and wanted to ask me out on a date.  But if I wasn't willing to date him, would I send the note back as it was one of his prized possessions!  I was mortified!  
Let me just insert here.....I wasn't very popular and didn't have a gaggle of guys waiting in the wings when I was fourteen or when I was however old I was when I received this envelope.


I won't go into the details of the note except to say that in it I wrote the following.......I'm just too young to be in love and so, heartbreaking as it is, I have to break up with you.  But it's not you......and maybe someday I'll look across a crowded room (you may want to excuse yourself and throw up about now) and see you standing in your MADRAS pants and we'll once again be together!


Please know that I was just trying to be kind and not hurt the poor Stalker's feelings by saying I just was not interested.  Besides, I really was too young for all this and was tired of reading those three words over and over and over again.  


I'm ashamed to say I didn't send the note back to the Stalker nor did I respond in any way.  Instead, I threw the note in the garbage and watched for him in my small town and hid my head if I even thought I saw him.  Now you know that keeping a note that long and laminating it is just weird.  Thankfully, he never called because I didn't know what I would tell him.


Note to young readers as if there are any!  Leave the poetic drama out of your break up notes or it could come back to bite you.  


Of course, I eventually met and married the superhero and he loves me even though I may still be a tad dramatic.


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As for this Friday, let me just say.......I'm so glad this week is o.v.e.r.  


Because really?  I'm all fragged out!

16 comments:

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Hysterically funny.....thanks for the laugh. What a great story you shared. Of course I know what madras pants are. I cannot believe he laminated that note and then mailed it to you after you were divorced. Yes, he is a stalker and a very strange man.

Ann in the UP said...

That is a jolly good story! I can't even imagine such devotion. Laminating your break-up note. Wow!

Barbara said...

Shoot! I was hoping that Superhero would turn out to be Stalker of the past....I know that's weird...glad everything turned out for the best! But I have seen Superhero in madras pants, I think...

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

Ah yes, I remember Madras plaid. I was a huge fan of them back in the day.

I've never heard of anyone (male or female) laminating their break-up note. Strange ... very strange. ;-)

Hope you can recover from your bad week over this weekend.

Katie and Beau said...

I bet he follows your blog and now you've broken his heart for a third time! You are cold hearted!

Mrs4444 said...

Wow. I can see why you call him Stalker. What a great story, though. I had an old (married) boyfriend contact me via Facebook and basically suggest what we "reconnect". Seriously?! Wow. I just point-blank told him that what he was doing was wrong and the he needed to get counseling. Haven't heard from him since.

Superhero sounds like a keeper :)

Thanks for linking up!

nancygrayce said...

Barbara, I asked if he wore madras pants and he said....you bet! :) They were the thing!

Katie.....I do hope he doesn't read it, but really he's had ample time to get over it! :)

Cathy said...

Very funny....if you were 14, I was 18 and must have been married....I don't remember this. As for being all fragged out, I am right there with you sister!!

Keetha Broyles said...

Hahahahahaha!!!

I THOUGHT it was going to end that Stalker WAS Superhero!

But the laminated note is just priceless.

You stinker - - - you SHOULD have sent it back, he may have needed it to comfort him in is lonely old age!

Keetha Broyles said...

I have no clue what madras pants are, but I read the story anyway - - - so there!

Off to google madras pants now - - -

Wayne W Smith said...

A interesting story...I would have been so tempted to go have coffee with the person however.

Stella said...

I do know what madras pants are so I guess that dates me. I think it's a great story young love should be dramatic. Hope you have a restful weekend.

viridian said...

Great story!!! Men should not wear madras pants or even shorts!

Dawn said...

Great great story! And I must say - he is WEIRD!!! Scary weird. And MADRAS - ucky. Although I wanted some when it was popular and I was always at the end of any fad, when the price went WAY down!

Hope next week is better!!

Ellen aka Ellie said...

I had to come over because on Mrs. 4444's linky, it said, "Thank God it's Frida," and that made me laugh before I got here.

Tell Mr. Suduko to let me know when he figures out how to collect royalties from his copyright!

(I had a bad week too, stupid stuff, but still I found myself glad for Frida also.)

Walk Down Memory Lane said...

Finally got to read your blog! Lyndee fixed it for me some way! Loved it!