Virginia Secretary Awaits Call, Romance Blossoms Among Want Ads

Among the used refrigerator ads in today’s News classified section lies a Virginia secretary’s dream of love.
Her ad -- you can read it yourself if you look -- reads this way:

“Dear Friend: It was midnight and you shred our chocolate milkshake with me. If you call Newport News, Va., 4-2613, before 8:30 a.m., I’ll answer.”

A reporter’s call yesterday disappointed Martha F.

“I was so hoping it would be him,” she said. “I haven’t been able to get him out of my mind. . . . nobody ever looked at me that way before.”

It happened in the Charlotte bus station the other night. Miss F. was on her way home to Hampton, Va., from Greenville, S.C., where she had visited an invalid brother.

“I had two minutes before the bus left,” she remembered this morning.

“I had ordered a cup of hot chocolate, but I didn’t have time to drink it. He felt sorry for me.

“He was in his thirties -- just like I am -- and he smiled at me. I moved beside him.

“He asked if I were going somewhere and when I said I was, he said, ‘I wish I were going somewhere. I live right here.’

“When he found out the hot chocolate was too hot to drink, he gave me almost all of his milkshake. I can’t forget the way he looked . . . “

Miss F. said she has sat by the phone for the past two nights, since mailing her classified ad to the “Personals” department of The News.

“I’ve never been in love before,” she said. “I’ve never met anyone I’ve been attracted to.”

She paused in her telling of it.

“You don’t think he’s married, do you?” she asked.

“That’s bothered me. he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. I hope so much he’s not married.”

“Maybe,” the reporter said, “we can help you find him.”

“Yes, “ she said, “And if he’s married -- well, just send me a postcard, will you?”

Charles Kuralt's People (Kenilworth Media, copyright 2002)
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