 |
April 05, 2006 |
|
 |
|
|
Important Notice
FOUND by Alan Smith
in Parkersburg, West Virginia
My friend Matt found this on a bulletin board just inside a Kroger store here in Parkersburg in late February 2003.
There's just so much to work with here... the bizarre phrasing, the seemingly pointless underlining, the sad desperation... Just who is this "daughter?" An actual relative? A former lover? A stalking victim? Funny thing is, there were no Hooters in the area in '98. One opened a year or two ago, but has since closed, and it wasn't near any Mary Street. Go figure.
We were all on the lookout for the "primered 77 Olds Cutlass S FTop 2 Dr car," but no one ever saw it that I know of. That's probably for the best. Actually seeing the person who wrote this would only ruin the legendary figure that many of us had pictured in our minds.
Sign in or register to start a profile and keep track of your comments. You may also post without creating a profile, but you'll have to answer some tough spam protection questions.
Sticky Note January 17, 2007 |
Hard Day's Work June 19, 2007 |
Sike! February 01, 2006 |
Horror Movie? October 17, 2006 |
 |
|
 |
         |
We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Did you ever read Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis? This reminds me of those "lost pet" notices in the book, code for something else. Creepy.
thank you for suggesting an interesting sounding book to me! and this is slightly creepy, yes.
Wow, freaky. It does sound like some bizarre note out of a stephen king novel or something. Really eerie...
just found the sight... I'm hooked! Maybe this letter is in code? Only the daughter of this man would know what it means? Born in 77? He tried a # he had for her and is looking for her? He just found out he is her father? Was there a strip club on that street?
I think there is a code in this message and I won't sleep until I break it...
I think there is a code in this message and I won't sleep until I break it...
That actually looks a lot like my dad's writing. Weird.
Danielle...how creepy for you to see your dads writing...John, break the Stephen King code. April is right, it so is hearts of atlantis...God, doing night audit is TOTALLY creeping me out now.
I, too, thought this was a code (before I had read the comments) so I wrote down the letters underlined (and the ones next to them that I wasn't sure of) and, going backwards settled on 700 kilos, hometown being the location, date is provided, car description (assuming these people know each other well) it just kinda jumped out as the above. Never been good on codes though. Just a guess. (have no idea what the daughter reference means) I am only right if it is a sloppy code.
i wtf-ed aloud at this one. i mean seriously- wtf!!
Maybe this guy had too many one night stands.
Sounds like the rambling of a schitzophrenic. The tangental changes in topic are very typical, along with the random bits of strange information that appear to have great meaning to the writer/speaker but which make no sense to the reader/listener.
I think that this is NOT a code at all. If you know American Sign Language, which is a visual language, and you sign as the letter is written, it makes perfect sense. Also, not all Schizophrenics ramble. I find it offensive that was stated. My daughter is schizophrenic and has a 3.78 GPA. She has never "rambled" this way. Don't read too much into this letter, it was probably written by someone who is Deaf.
Wow - I hope they found whoever they were looking for.
Wow...Daddy's got a T top Cutlass getting ready for paint.
Who's NOT looking for a long brunette haired lady of 30's in Hooters shorts?
Overkill, Darlena. The fact is, a MAJORITY of schizophrenics ramble. You should consider yourself and your daughter blessed at what she has and will accomplish. Just because she does not ramble, doesn't mean that the comment was wrong. In addition, you have no space to get offended, as you are not the person who is afflicted. Tha't the same as getting pissed because I called my friend a bitch, and it didn't bother her, but since YOU don't like it, I shouldn't do it. Give me a break.
Geez, Darelena....chill out, for Pete's sake!! "Ha" was right on with her comment. Thanks for bringing some sense to the board. Schitzos are crazy and most likely ramble. Everyone knows that. I think this note does look like something that could have been right by a mentally disturbed person. I hope he got help. Hmmmmm......
I agree with Ha.
Darlena, if your daughter doesn't ramble, that's fantastic. I've met some schizophrenics who don't myself, but the majority I've come across DO ramble. The disease is just like that.
If it makes sense because of sign language, that's a pretty cool way to look at it, and I can see how that would make sense.
I just kind of pictured a mentally ill old man.
Oh well, creepy/awesome find. :]
I'm going on a comment odyssey tonight so I thought I would jump in on this one. Surely the point of enabling commends at Found is that we are all entitled to offer opinions or answers as to the motivation of the person who wrote, and we do that by thinking sympathetically - by relating our own experiences to the object. I think it's valid that the letter could be the writing of someone with a mental disorder (and it serves us all well to remember that we all have very subjective experiences of mental disorders and that mental disorders run a wide gamut), or of someone who signifies their meaning not atypically, or even of someone who wrote, absolutely, what he means. Perhaps this is the last ditch effort of someone who found their daughter, but was and is in no economic state to begin a relationship with her - Paris, Texas springs to mind.
Creepy find! I too thought it was a code when I was reading it. Good thought on the Paris, Texas comment.
I don't think this is code. I think that the guy who wrote this is just really bad with grammar. It sounds to me like he went to a strip club called Hooters, not the restaurant. It also seems like he's a Pimp and that he could possibly be referring to some stripper he met and tried to get at. I mean...."primered 77 Olds Cutlass S FTop 2 Dr car". You have to be some kind of pimp to drive a car like that.
My grandmother is a schizophrenic and she rambles all of the time. Not really in a bad way, though. I have seen little annotations and notes she's written to herself, and they seem similar to that note.
Taking it at face value, this guy met a woman in her 30's in Hooters, near the street where someone named Mary lived (Mary's street--not a stretch with his grammar and spelling)and the woman gave him a fake number because she *didn't* want to hear from him again.
He's been away from town and came back thinking to find her at that number 3 yrs later.
I don't think he's mentally ill--just probably very, very annoying. And old enough to be her father! He probably had a few drinks with her and fantasized the rest of the relationship in his head. So this is the way she brushed him off.
It wouldn't be the first time a bar pick-up gave a fake number and/or name, and it won't be the last.
Worked for me!
While it is indeed true that not all schizophrenics "ramble", I'll have to second the opinion of some previous posters and state that I think the person who wrote this note displays clear signs of what appears to be pretty advanced (as in "unmedicated") schizophrenic dementia. Dunno why, I just find it pretty obvious.
I don't think it's a "find" if it was taken off of a bulletin board. It's a steal. That was meant for someone else to see. If it was in fact someone looking for his/her actual daughter, I hope the person meant to get the note saw it before it was taken.
I think this sounds like the set up for a novel or short story. He underlines important points about character's background. It jumps around because he was just writing brief comments and suggestions of dialog for each progressive scene.
I picture an writer scribbling this furiously, then rereading it and deciding it wasn't worth actually writing, then sadly discarding it.
The questions/observations I have:
1. If he misplaced a phone number of a young woman he felt was like a daughter to him, why not just go back to the club as soon as he realized he lost it...why let three years pass?
2. This note sounds and looks angry to me. The words/phrases with quotes and starting it with 'okay' and ending it with 'come on' make it sound like he's ticked.
3. I agree...not a Hooters the chain, but probably a strip club with a similar name or maybe he just calls any strip club a hooters club.
My thoughts - Perhaps the man had kind of a "sugar daddy" relationship with a stripper at this club. He was moving away from the area (his hometown) and wanted her digits. She gave him a fake number because while she was cool with their 'professional' relationship within the club, she was not interested in taking it beyond those walls, yet didn't want to hurt his feelings. (Or maybe she was afraid to tell him no when he asked for her number.) When he finally found the number and called it, it belonged to someone else - a son who had recently lost his father, and he was using the father's phone and car.
Now Sugar Daddy is back, looking for the stripper, who has long moved on to bigger and better things. But Sugar Daddy is ticked and left this note in hopes of finding her...
(Incidentally, I don't see anything schizophrenic about this find.)
This is creepy to me and I also thought that the writer may have some sort of mental illness. Also reminded me of Joyce Carol Oates short stories.
Thoughts:
1. "Hooter's club on Mary St of Sept"= "...Hooter's on Mary/ 5th of September"
2. The reason the man who answered the phone said "dad. deceased and car and phone his now" was short hand for the explanation the "son" gives because he's used to getting calls for other people on his cellphone (because it used to be his dad's: the note-writer turned out not to be calling for the "son", so the son gave the usual rap about the cell phone now being his, no longer belonging to his dad. Totally unrelated to the note-writer's situation. Note writer inquired further--do you know this brunette lady? that he "seeked of"
3. the note writer is waiting in this same strip club's parking lot, hoping the girl will show? I totally see this as an old guy who was into some particular stripper. "I've thought of you as my daughter" combined with "come on daughter" totally sounds like a boozy strip club guy's view of the world.
Oh, great "Lost in Translation"
That is exactly what I was thinking, this must be some sort of sordid relationship. He can't be looking for his real daughter, there is too much sexual frustration coming out of this note. . .gross.
It's possible that this man had been going to this particular Hooters for sometime in the hopes of getting up the nerve to talk to the brunette who's young enough to be his daughter. He asks for her phone number and then loses his nerve. Then when he finally gets the nerve to call her up, it's not her number (she moved or gave him a fake number). He finds out-- somehow-- from the young man who answers that his father's dead and he inherited the father's cell phone and car. Yet, there's no indication that he went to "the Hooters club on Mary St." to ask of her whereabouts.
I'm not going to speculate on the specifics of his mental condition, but anyone who waits in a parking lot in a '77 Olds for about a month and advertises it at a Kroger is (at the very least) not right in the head. If the brunette values her safety, she should stay lost.
I generally don't have a lot to say about finds, but this one is almost intoxicating.
I think that there is a lot of validity in a lot of the things that everyone else has said, and I am sure that that fragments of the truth are in there, but this is so strange that it is hard to say for certain.
I read it like a literary text that I had picked up and opened to a page in the middle without knowing anything about the plot. A well written passage can tell an entire story, even if it is cryptic - so I tried to understand it in that fashion.
First section:
Okay, I've felt you're my Daughter and you'd given me a Phone Number in Hooter club on mary ST of Spet. 1998 AND, I mislaid it up of, 3 years until 2001!
Then CaLLed the Ph. Number ,
A young man - Son - AnswereD , DAD "DECEASED AND CAR +Phone, his Now.'
No, HE didn't know ANY Long BRUNETTE HAIRED Lady of 30's ThaT I Seeked of, THat Number?
->This first section is not entirely in quotations, but a section of it is. His underlining seems to be somewhat haphazard, and so could it not be possible that the quotations are also used incorrectly, as it appears to be that the whole second portion of the note is in quotations, and this could perhaps indicate directly addressing the listener? My main issue with this portion is that 'Son' appears to share with a stranger that he has not only his 'Dad's' phone, but his car, which makes no sense to me and so I have somewhat come to the abstract conclusion that, as mentioned above, the quotations indicate a direct address. If she was like a daughter then maybe it is significant that it is mentioned that a young man answers the phone and is referred to as 'Son'; 'DAD' is not within the quotations, and so I have taken this to be - the son answered the father - I don't know any brunet, she is dead to me, don't call this number, she isn't here even though her car and phone are - they are mine now.
I think that this is a terrible family situation in which the father and son are estranged because the lovely wife had to work as a stripper to pay the bills and when the father happened upon her she gave him her cell number to talk it our, but he talked to the son about it, who obviously did not take it very well and kicked her out and kept everything that he had ever bought her. The situation is clearly one of tragic middle-American poverty - a classic car that is primed only, how sad!
I think that the 'Father' feels terrible about this and is not specifically able to articulate any of this effectively.
I think that the letter was left at this multi-purpose store is a testament to fact that this was not simply a creep having a crush on a stripper, I am inclined to believe that there was a previous relationship in which the man was familiar with her day to day habits, and I think that him leaving the contact up to her is a clear indication that A. She was not being stocked, and B. He is not disjointedly mentally ill, as this is not a severe obsessive behavior, it is a gesture of making contact, he is trying to come half way, he is acting on his feelings the best way he can which comes off as rambling incoherently - he is trying to shake off the fear and paralysis of the past few years - he has a terrible sense of sentence structuring, but just because we don't understand the strange references, who is to say that 'Daughter' doesn't? I am even inclined to suggest that maybe he is not Anglophone? 'of hometown' I think means that he was away in his country of origin perhaps? Her knowing him but him not knowing her I think could be an indication that he feels as though she has been told about him from the 'Son', but that he feels as though he has not been able to speak to her directly and wants to know her not simple as a daughter, but as a human being.
Life can be very overwhelming, and we don't all get the breaks we should, I hope that these people are all okay, and I hope that they have somehow patched things up.
to me it sounds like a guy had a random one night stand with some girl who lied about her number, where she worked, etc and he now thinks its his daughter.
some weird freudian thing????
As noted before, the really interesting thing to me are the Words underlined partially or adorned with quotation marks. I can't explain it, but I get a very bad feeling from this note. I feel like this person intends to harm, and I don't know why I feel that way.
The car is not an "F" top but rather a "T" top because the Cutlass did come with a T-top option. This was most common on sporty cars like the Camaro or Tran-Am. But given that this was somewhere in Appalachia, it makes a lot of sense and probably is as common as a Honda Accord is in California. The rest of the note, I have no clue about.
i live on a mary street that is about 2 blocks away from the hooters in coconut grove, fl. if you were not paying attention, it might be possible to think that the hooters is on mary street, as it curves at the end directly into the street that the hooters is on (grand ave.) just a thought.
Okay - now, maybe I'm way off - but I think it's a harmless poem or song. Maybe I just look at everything with a musical perspective - but it rhymes, and actually has kind of an amazing rhythm.
try it out loud (if you kind of give it a thick beat, and speak it quick like a rap):
okay i've felt you're my daughter/
and you'd given me a phone number -
in hooter's club;
on mary street - of sept. 1998.
mislaid it up of
3 years, until 2001.
then called the phone number/
a young man - son - answered;
Anyways - like I said, I may be over (or under) analyzing it. But I like to think of it as a type of creative genious than a creepy strip-club stalker.
Meg in Cognito and What About... in Grand Rapids, Michigan: You two are genius[es]! LOVED reading your interpretations. So different, and so wonderful. Thank you :)
I have to agree- the person who wrote this does sound like he was Deaf, with American Sign Language as his first language. The grammar mostly fits, showing that he might have picked up some English grammar along the way, but not much.
And yes, a phone number would make sense too- the guy could have used a TTY or relay to call.
It seems to me like someone's attempt at song writing.