Madam, – I refer to Frank McNally’s article on marathon running and on Bruce Springsteen. I once met the great man (Springsteen, not McNally). I was a customs officer in Dublin Airport on May 31st, 1985. He was kind enough to autograph the first page of a new notebook. On the inside of the notebook I used the Customs stamp to record the date. Opposite this was the famous scrawl. This was the start of his European tour.
This squiggle would be worth money in years to come and had great “provenance”.
A number of years later I took out my notebook and saw on one side the impression of the stamp saying “Customs and Excise, Dublin Airport, May 31st, 1985”. On the page opposite was written “Two pork chops, 2lbs of mince, four lamb chops . . .”. I asked my mother what had happened. She said she was taking stock of the contents of the freezer.
I told her that the page she had torn out contained the autograph of Bruce Springteen. She said “Sure I didn’t know”. – Yours, etc,