The Postcards for Mom Pranksters

Hi everyone, This is Betty Anne!!!!!
I am posting through Wendy's blog registration. I cannot believe she did this for me! It has been so much fun. Thank you honey. She and her sister are both such sweeties.

I suspected they were responsible for the cards at first, but then some of the handwriting matched closely with several members of my sister's family, and they travel and have friends all over the country, so I thought my sister and her boys were writing the notes and sending them to friends to mail. I also had a lot of notes from Arkansas and Missouri, and my sister traveled there this summer and visited a lot of our relatives, so I really thought it was her.

Wendy and Amy thought it was unusual when I started writing responses, but then Wendy sent me some stationary with 'Betty Anne' printed on the front of the cards in large hot pink letters. I see you have some posted on the web-site. I wrote a lot of responses that came back as 'undeliverable - no such address', or 'no one by that name at this address'. Between that and the sheer volume of trying to write responses to everyone, I just gave up.

Wow, I cannot begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed the 'silly mail' All of the cards, keys, buttons, and photos are in albums, baskets, paper bags and covering the dining room table. I'll tally everything up over the Labor Day weekend and let you all know what my 'take' was.

Let me tell you that I have been sent a scarf and two different Hickory Farms packages. I have received a used pass to Paris Disney World, and coins from a lot of different countries. I have coupons to a French McDonald's. I have recieved cards from almost every state, Japan, China, Indonesia, Austrailia, England, France, Germany, Austria and more.

I enjoyed the keys most of all (I liked the buttons too), as the notes explaining what the key was for were the most creative. I got a notice from an orthodontist that I missed my appointment. I received a page from an electrical catalog listing adaptors that said 'adapt' and nothing else. I got pictures of keys, keys to cars, keys to hotel rooms in exotic places, keys to peoples beach houses, keys to peoples back doors, keys to diaries, keys to lockers, keys to outhouses and sheds, and one key to the city. I got a lot of birthday cards, and just last week I got a couple of Christmas cards. I am going to send a picture of myself, my husband, Wendy and her family, Amy and both of the dogs for Will to put on the web site.

Anyway, the most important thing I want to say is to the person who wrote you saying this is a mean prank: It is NOT mean, it is a wonderful prank. It is so much fun to go to the post office and pick up funny mail from strangers. I usually went to the sandwich shop next door to have a glass of iced tea while I read my mail, and every time someone would come up to me and say somehting alonge the lines of "I have never seen anyone so happy to open their mail before!" I would explain to them that I was getting mail from total strangers who pretend to know me and that they were sending me keys (buttons, etc). All of them thought it sounded like a lot of fun. The people who run the post office where my box was all want to know how to do this for someone they like. Like I wrote in my note to Dylan, a good practical joke is a carefully structured thing. To recieve 1 or 5 or 10 notes from strangers in one location can be scary, but to receive hundreds from all over the world is just plain funny.

To Will:
The auction worked well. Do that again. Someone gets to prank their Mom, a Mom gets lots of fun mail, and a charity gets a donation. Everyone wins (except that strange person who doesn't think this is nice).

I have a special greeting for Margaret, Kennedi and Chico, who have been including me in thier European travels all summer. I love you, thank you for the picture and I will write soon.

My favorite note was probably from Lola, who reminisced about our rodeo days, but really, my favorite is whichever one I am holding in my hand at the moment.

I am at work, so I have to go now, but I will send another post soon. I look forward to sending postcards to another mom soon.

Love to all of you,
Betty Anne