This took place when we were living down in Aliso Viejo, California. If you remember from Paul Schatzkin's book:
There was really nothing else to do but put together some questions, and few days later I sealed up a priority mail package with some two dozen questions about Townsend Brown and addressed it to “Mr. Norman Paperman,” at a post office box somewhere in Texas.
About a week later, the phone rang again, and this time I recognized the phone number in Texas, so I took the call in real time and heard the now familiar syrupy-sweet southern accent.
“Paul,” Ms. Syrupy Sweet said, “This is Mr. Paperman’s secretary.” Uh-huh. Sleuth that I am, I’d figured that much out already. “I have one question for you.”
“Fire away.”
“Mr. Paperman wanted me to call, and ask you if you know Linda still has the token.”
The token. Ah. That rang a bell. I had to take a beat and search my memory. I vaguely remembered a story that Linda told me when we first met, nearly a year earlier, at that hotel in Las Vegas. She had told me that she and Morgan celebrated New Year’s 1966/67 together in New York City. Morgan knew then that his and Linda’s paths would soon be
going in very different directions, and he’d given her that subway token as a talisman, like a secret decoder ring “good for one fare” if she ever needed to find her way back to him. Linda still had the token. She carried it in her purse, and showed it to me in Las Vegas.
“Yes,” I said to the sweet southern lady on the phone. “She still has the token.”
“OK,” Mr. Paperman’s secretary said, “I’ll let him know that.”
Not ten minutes later, Linda Brown was working in the corral behind her house, under a cloudless blue sky, high in the California desert, shoveling feed to her aging horse “Shadetree,” when a ghost emerged from the sagebrush, sauntered to the edge of the corrall and said, “Hello there….”
Without a word, Linda reached out. Morgan remained silent as Linda's fingers spread out and her palm flattened over his chest. This ghost had a heartbeat.
Very romantic. Here's the problem.
Linda had lost her "token" from Morgan/Dave. She didn't know where it was.
We had a Nilla Wafer container that we would put our change in, and when it got full, we would take it across the street to the coin machine, get our cash, and go have some fun. The next time I took it in, out pops a little New York transit coin as a reject. I couldn't believe it.
Now, I am a little OCD, and whenever something comes into my house, especially something as strange as this token, I usually know where it came from (little harder now that we have a daughter). I called Linda Leach and told her that I thought I had found her token.
She said she was down at the local swap meet that Saturday morning and was with Rose, or Marie (or Jan). I described the token to here exactly, and she asked if it had the five-sided hole in the middle. Oh yes, oh yes. She was overcome with emotion and even appeared to cry a bit .We said our goodbyes.
But how had it come to be in my Nilla wafer box ? I wracked my brains, and then I remembered. I had been walking from there house to their garage on one of my frequent trips up there, and had seen the token, picked it up and put it in my pocket. I remember it because it had a little hole in it. I noted that, but didn't think too much of it, since I collect coins from around the world and many of them do have holes in them.
My wife had a little red Chinese ring box, which we put the token in and gave to here. She was so thankful ! Yes, it was hers alright.
Some time went by - a few weeks or months. I can't remember exactly. She tells me that "her" token has shown up on the kitchen table, and gives the box back to me saying that she hadn't wanted to hurt my feelings by telling me it wasn't hers. In addition, this was "my" token. Good for one fare anywhere and any when. WOW. Was I stoked.
We spent hours taking about our tokens (Yes, I am a chump. You are too nice to say it, but you are thinking it). Where we would go, what time we would go to. It was a big topic of conversation with us.
Then everything began to unravel with Mikados' due diligence. We moved away, and I thought I would give Linda Leach the benefit of the doubt. If I could use my token, then everything she said was true, and I would be back in to support her 110%. So I wrote this email on August 10, 2012:
Linda,
Linda and I have been discussing the situation from the time Paul Schatzkin appeared on the scene through Mikado and the current state of affairs. Rather than continue remain in a state of limbo, I believe I have identified a solution that is acceptable to us.
I have one “Good for one fare” token produced by the New York Transit Authority in my hand. According to you and “the group,” it is vaild for one trip any where / any when, and the entire situation boils down to whether this token is valid or not.
That said, I am calling it in to go where Alexandra needs me most. I will make it easier by suggesting the day of her wedding (if I am not already there) or her deathbed. After 20+ years in the game, if everything is on the up-and-up, I deserve to be able to call in this favor, if you can even call it that.
Let’s schedule this for Monday, August 20th, 2012, which will give everyone time to make any preparations, and I will have the token with me all day.
If the token is valid then I am back on board 110%, or, in the opposite case, I will return the remainder of the documents I have stored away and move on to more realistic endeavors. In either case, the answer will be fairly self-evident, with no additional discussion necessary.
Here was her response:
Andrew...
You say..."According to you and “the group,” it is vaild for one trip any where / any when, and the entire situation boils down to whether this token is valid or not.
What?
. May I ask you where you got your token? I know where and when I got mine... and I am sorry that I do not know how you happened to have yours... this is the one that Linda found for you?, thinking it was the one I had lost? Is this the token in the red box? I am just trying to see straight here when you reference a token.... what it actually is and where it came from. I am foggy on its importance to you and your work..... if I ever led you to believe that it stood for a " free ride" for you to pick at a time of your choice... then you must have seriously misunderstood me.
You should know that I am not in any way capable of calling any kind of favor in for you. If I could have done that I would have done it years ago. If this means that you should shelve your interest in what you are doing.... because your expectations here have not been met..and you and Linda have come to this decision together...... then... I would have to say that it is your decision and you both go with my blessing.
I really don't know what else to say to you.
Linda
All those hours and hours and hours talking about our tokens was...nothing ? Ouch.
Then I did a search for tokens: http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Commemorative_Tokens_and_Medals
At the bottom of this page is the token I found at Linda Leach's and gave to her. She asked if it had a five-sided hole in it when I was on the phone with her. Unfortunately, that style of token was made starting in 1994.
Now look at the token that she suddenly found on her kitchen table. This one is the one with the Y-shaped hole in it (which is on the cover of her "book"). Note again that it has a "Y-shaped" hole.
How in the world can you confuse a five-sided hole for a Y-shaped hole ?
Then it hit me.
The Y-shaped hole style of tokens was manufactured starting in September 1953. Her original five-side hole token didn't fit into her story, having been manufactured after 1994.
And now this from Linda Leach:
Andrew... the ultimatum that you have recently issued to me from your friends at the Hut.... has about the same significance as the ultimatum that you presented when you handed me a fake token and demanded a " ride" in exchange for it. How did that work out for you?
You are exactly where you deserve to be and you are in the proper company. Remember your dream? Have you heard my response yet?
Why thank you. I have a job that I enjoy, a wonderful family, a pleasant house with enough land to plant fruit and nut trees, friends that we trust and trust us, and smart and capable colleagues.
Shame on you, Linda Leach. Shame on you from the bottom of my heart. You are a shameful and destitute person.
And now, I am going to turn my back on you, and simply not think of you very often at all.
Best,
Andy
P.S. Had to edit this for grammar.
