‘Louise’ mystery revealed with a phone call

Upon arriving back to the office Monday afternoon after a leisurely three-hour combined coffee break and lunch break (ha ha), there was a pink phone message slip on my desk. The message was from “Louise.”

“Louise?” I thought. “I’m not sure who ‘Louise’ is.”

So, out of sheer, morbid curiosity, I returned the phone call.

“I think you have my notebook,” she said.

It was Louise of I-found-her-notebook-in-my-desk fame (see last week’s Patriot, or visit us on line at www.bremertonpatriot.com if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

Much to the chagrin of my poor co-workers, I realized immediately who it was and started scream-laughing. Fortunately, the only co-worker in the office was staff writer Christopher “Chris” Mulally who is so used to my bursting out in laughter — usually for no apparent reason — that he just looked at me and walked into the break room.

That poor guy.

Now, back to Louise.

Louise, as it turns out, used to be a secretary/everything for a realtor in the late 1980s. The office was where the Bremerton Patriot office now is: 520 Burwell St.

That would explain why her notebook was full of notes about broken water heaters, scribbled addresses and notes about Dixie being sick. Her husband read the Patriot last week and told her, “You need to read this, it’s about you.”

My curiosity got the better of me, as it always does, and I asked Louise if I could deliver her notebook to her. I had to meet her.

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting in her living room while she poured over the notebook, pointing out names and phone numbers, telling me stories and having a grand time.

She also reminesced about the days of yore, when downtown Bremerton was a booming, happening place. About 20 years ago, it was impossible to walk three blocks in less than an hour because she had to stop and talk to everyone she saw. Everyone who worked downtown was like one big family, she said.

Louise had lots of great stories to tell. I wanted more than anything to sit and pick her brain for information on this community I am trying so desperately to learn about.

The funny thing was, she was just as interested in me as I was in her.

She confessed that she hadn’t been looking for the notebook at all over the last two decades. She used to fill her notebooks up (I mean really, really fill them up), keep them for a while, then toss them.

Everything else I had surmised about her was correct, she admitted. She’s a self-proclaimed bad speller and she did use shorthand.

And, just for the record, she is one very interesting, intelligent lady.

Oh yeah ... as it turned out, (the now late) Dixie wasn’t really “sick,” she was likely just really hung-over, Loiuse disclosed with a bit of a blush. So I guess she was feeling better after she slept it off.

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