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October 23, 2008 |
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Love Billy Bradley
FOUND by Grace Kaelin
in Louisville, Kentucky
My husband found this note, which looks like it was typed on a manual typewriter, in a book in a used bookstore.
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Apocalypse Suburbia May 07, 2007 |
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Yeewww! February 25, 2008 |
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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...
Oh, what book?
Either BillyBradley is 8 and this note is cute, or BillyBradley is 45 and lives in a van down by the river, in which case this note is really creepy.
"We can have fun and make memories with our 'can do' attitudes!"
Why would anyone write a note like that on a typewriter? Crappy handwriting?
Yes little boy, and don't pack underwear....YOU WON'T NEED IT *sharpens axe*
I hope the note is there because Dad found it and kicked BillyBradley's ASS.
such a very formal invitation.
the use of a typewriter, the spelling and punctuation, are all at odds with the age/maturity of the notes "tone of voice".
the only possible conclusion is; Billy Bradley has his own secretary.
(and an old fashioned one at that, who uses a good dependable classic typewriter instead of some newfangled word-processing machine)
the recipient of this invitation should definitely ask his/her mom for permission to go. any kid who can afford his own old-timey secretary is SURE to have a pretty sweet vacation planned.
I wish the finder had told us the book's title. It might be a very old note. In my childhood the doctor told my parents to get me a manual typewriter to improve my dexterity. I typed Everything (except schoolwork, which my teacher wouldn't accept "because how do I know you did it?"). I loved to type on a manual keyboard, the springiness, the clicking, hitting the carriage return after the bell! I didn't learn to touch-type until I was in highschool, but even looking at the keyboard my speed was very good. Once I learned to touch-type, I left the whole class behind.
I typed notes to my friends, letters to relatives, party invitations, my private diary, anything. Sometimes I would type out a passage from a novel just to have something more to type.
Computer keyboards just aren't the same. And you never saw anyone getting "repetitive motion syndrome" from a Remington.
@ baby basil: Manual typwriters had their own smell, too. Something about the oil in the machinery I asssume. There was a feel, a smell, a sound, and the fun of watching the little levers smack against the paper one at a time. If you drank the correction fluid, all your senses were involved. (I never did)
I remember when I was in kindergarten, they started us using computers. I had used a manual typewriter at home and so I pushed enter after every line. The teacher totally called me out on it. Also in kindergarten, my BFF, Darrick, pointed out that the letters for the word "was" were so perfectly placed on the keyboard.
At any rate, I definitely got a bad vibe from this note.
Wasn't Billy Bradley a basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former U.S. Senator from New Jersey? Wouldn't you think he could have afforded an electric typewriter?
I don't know.. I'm thinking Billy is 45 and creepy-- the reasons are fourfold:
1. good spelling, grammar,
2. lack of numerous or substantial typos, and clear formatting
3. multiple reminders to "ask your mom"
4. and the clear instructions (to bring toys and clothes for a week)
seem way above a little kid's mental processing... This kind of makes me sick and sad if I think about it too much.
Um...yeah...it could be typed to avoid comparison to a handwriting sample on record somewhere...
I def. get a creepy vibe.
@Geek: Guess who invented White-Out correction fluid? Mike Nesmith's mum! No wonder he bailed on the Monkees.
Generations of typists thanked her daily without ever knowing who she was. The only real advantage to computers is not having to retype a 3 page document for one or two lines to be inserted.
Hahaha! Some of you have Overactive Imagination Syndrome. I love it!
Billy, an only child, enjoys playing with his friend Cindy's dolls and Easy Bake Oven. He is also very envious of her lacy dresses and Hello Kitty underwear. This note outlines his scheme to spend an entire week surrounded by the objects of his affection.
He was just an excitable boy...
This note is great! I think:
-very old
-spelling and punctuation are good because it is old and kids paid more attention to those important details
-formal...no way would ANY one have any bit of formality these days.
Billy Bradley may be 45 now, but I bet he misses that old typewriter
Lauren, thank you for clearing up a mystery. I have a very good friend who writes stories, and he'll often ask me to read them over. Whenever he emails them to me, they always have a squiggly line under the first word of a line, asking for a capital. he must do the same thing, hit enter at the end of a line. I must remember to ask him about it.
my guess - older sib typed the letter for Billy.
Was that a "pting" in Warren Zevon's head, Alan?
Or possibly billy dictated the note to his mother, which would explain the lack of typos. I hope this is true, because the alternative is way too creepy.
The very first letter in this note is a strikeover, where the writer first typed a lower case 'a' and then corrected it with an upper case 'A' on top of it. You can't do that on a computer. (Sigh.)
I miss my IBM Selectric II.
Remember the little white paper correction tape that you could go back and retype the mistake onto? I used to go through a lot of those. Gosh I'm old. (47)
Don't be so sure that this isn't from a child. I have 8 year old twins and they type, spell and punctuate rather well. Cool info on Mike Nesbitt's mom, I'd never have known that tidbit!
I think Billy Bradley's Dad typed this note and Billy Bradley's Dad will be packing the Rohibnol in hia suitcase and Billy Bradley's friend will be sorry he went on vacation with Billy Bradley's family...
We'll eventually read about Billy in the newspapers. One of the paragraphs in the story will begin:
"Neighbors agreed that Mr. Bradley had always been quiet and kept pretty much to himself. ..."
anyone ever seen the movie "Happiness" ??
I can't believe I'm the first one to make this connection:
http://www.foundmagazine.com/find/823
what is a type writer?...
BILLYBRADLEY's family has/had pretentions about being southern aristocracy. it simply would not do to deliver a hand-written invitation. it would be impolite and tres gauche. so BILLYBRADLEY had to type his invitation to his friend.
i like the wording in the last sentence. BILLYBRADLEY (this is his first name; more evidence of the southernness) knows his friend needs a vacation from his mom.
@ Flargy in New Haven, CT, Librarian in the woodwork said
"Wasn't Billy Bradley a basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former U.S. Senator from New Jersey? Wouldn't you think he could have afforded an electric typewriter?"
Maybe that's what the other note was about. This one definitely give off a creepy-camp counselor vibe. It makes me pretty sick, actually.
Really me. I can't believe I finally go the find of the day. I sent this in months ago!
I asked my husband and he couldn't remember the book. He buys lots of old history books. I thought the note was weird because it seems like it was written by a child, but what child uses a manual typewriter even back when that was all there was for typing? I do think it was written by a child and not a pervert!
I thought there was a famous Billy Bradley. He was born in 1943 so he could have typed this note when he was 10 in 1953!
My contractor found my 'toys' when he installed the new bathroom countertops. Didn't even think about cleaning out the contents of the cabinets - just didn't occur to me. Come home to the contents piled on the floor with the 'toys' on top of the pile. Sitting in all their glory.
Really made me contemplate - at that time - if I should have gone for the neon pink color.
After I stopped cringing from embarassment - laughed at the humor of it all. :)
I think this is an old note. I am 43 and I used to love to type on a manual typewriter. I imagine he typed this to his best friend and gave it to him at school. It seeme to me like an innocent invitation to spend vacation with the family. I think it is awesome that boys did this too! I always had a friend at my house or I was at their house. For vacations too.
I just found this site in the last few days and I am totally addicted!
What we see here is a glimps into the former New Jersey senator's childhood. It was the rejection that led him to a life in politics as a means of compensating for his lack of friends.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bradley
I'm thinking Billy is young. He asked his mom to help with the letter, she probably wrote it by hand first, and then he got to type it. It was really just a great opportunity to type something on that super fun typewriter! Y'all might be spending a little too much time looking for the evils lurking in found.
I concur wih MONA and ROBLEY on this....from wayyy ago when times were much simpler.
Avoiding Classwork,
I saw Librarian's comment. I meant the connection to the other Find, not the connection to Bill Bradley himself.
I've gotta go download some Monkeys music now. They were great.
@ Hiplainsdrifter. That film was so unrelentingly depressing. It was good, but one of the most uncomfortable things I've watched in a long time. The scene with his son at the end was just tragic.
I think this note is perfectly innocent, a boy who isn't normally allowed to use the type writer, mum says write to your friend to invite him on holiday, and he says can I use the typewriter! Sweet I think, and I hope they had fun with all the (perfectly innocent, non sexual) toys.
@ Lauren in Muncie:
You must have used an electric, not a manual typewriter, and had grown accustom to using the return key on the electric model. A manual typewriter was truly "manual"--you had to physically return the carriage to the right margin after a bell sounded to let you know you had come to the end of a line. I remember in Junior High as an eighth grader, taking typing and being so slow. Little did I know then all the clatter of the keys and clanging of the bells was putting my 13 year old ADD brain into sensory overload! I took a keyboarding test a few years ago and found out I can type around 80 wpm. Amazing what the quite of the computer keyboard and 30 years of maturity can do for you!
It makes me sad that this note automatically sent up red flags, and so many of you assumed Billy is a perv. I'd also like to believe this note comes from an era when kids still gave a crap about spelling and punctuation. I can't even understand the text lingo kids use today! If our Forefathers had used it, I imagine the US Constitution would read something like this:
“We da People of da United States, N Order 2 form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide 4 da common d-fence, promote da general Welfare, N secure da Blessings of Liberty 2 ourselves and R Posterity, do ordain N establish dis Constitution 4 da United States of America. “
Heck, it would probably be far worse, because as I mentioned, I really don't comprehend the way they slaughter the English language, just to save a few keystrokes.
@Cotton: It's not about saving keystrokes, it comes from punching letters on a mobile phone keypad. I have to say, the younger the kid, the faster they do it. I am getting used to having my friend's kids take the phone off me with that long-suffering look and a "Heeerre...whaddaya wanna say?" when they see me trying to send a quick message to someone.
Actually, I'm grateful for the help. I know I'm slow. But then I was taught to write, by hand, with a pencil. Do they use pencils anymore? I know the old Berol pencil sharpener that used to grace doorways in classrooms the world over--is now a museum piece. Sigh.
I can sign in again. Thank you Found gods.
BillyBradley: Kid-toucher. No doubt.
Cotton: You are right. It must have been an electric. :)
Hiplainsdrifter: Happiness is one of my favorite movies. The more awkward and disturbing, the better!
Seriously, this Billy Bradley guy is bad news.
happy in my own world... WTF??
@Hiplainsdrifter--I looked up the movie "Happiness" on IMDB and, needless to say, it doesn't look like it promotes anything resembling happiness.....
baby basil, it might make you happy to know that I (a freshman in highschool) have a manual typewrite, which I type invitations, assignments, anything on whenever possible. The school-funded laptops (which I'm on now...) just aren't the same.
If I had to type my comments on a typewriter instead of a laptop they would look like this:
iF ihad TO typpeemi kommens om a TYpperitter instead offA lLaPPtoop theu wood lokk likw yhiss
@Effie Lauren & MLM
True - the title has NOTHING to do with the movie. I rented and watched it one day on the advice of a friend (we torpedo each other on occasion) - when I took the movie back I told the girl behind the counter "You should rent a squeegy with the movie so you can clean off afterwards..." the girl thinking I had rented a porn says "What movie?" I answered "Happiness" and she visibly shivered and said "Oh - that movie..." (in agreement with me)
PS. the scene with the father and son was shot entirely separate and then edited together... It's a great movie that has a very dark sense of humor about it...
I love the fact that Billy is making sure his friend asks him mum, lol obviously his friends dad is more strict than his mum lol
i defo rekon its a kid though thats parents or older sibling typed it for him, kind of to humour him i used to try to be formal like that, thought it was how adults did things
Ok here is my take on it...Billy is a innocent little boy however he had mom coaching him. reminding him to make sure the other MOM was well aware it would be a week and that they had permission. i have 4 kids and you have no idea how many times the kids have made plans with others and neither me nor the other parent knew anything about it. OR what is worse when a parent and child show up with night bag in tow and you had no clue lol
ps I am new to this site and am already in LOVE with it. I am a sub teacher and have found some great gems! Now i can save them and share them with you all :)
this looks EXACTLY like the notes my Mom, a secretary would type to ME or to my teachers or whoever.. instead of handwriting them.
I guarantee you little Billy's mother wrote this, then cut it out, then gave it to Billy to give to his friend on his behalf.
I bet little Billy's mom typed his to-do lists also.. and I bet his house is NOT as tidy as his mother's now that he's grown up, and that he's in therapy just like me...
I knew a Billy Bradley once, back in Derby, CT. Weird.
Sounds like kids dying to have fun together over the summer.