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March 28, 2008 |
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Hi! My Name Is Freedom
FOUND by Jeff Hopper
in Carmel, Indiana
Recently, my mom approached what she thought was a piece of litter in her front "yard" (my parents live in an apartment townhouse), only to find a deflated white balloon with a 3x5 card tied to it that had a note scrawled from "Freedom" herself. From the looks of it, Freedom appears to be about 9 years old, and while ruthless about the consequences of restraining her, is fairly courteous. Enjoy!
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Tough Bounce October 10, 2004 |
Stapled October 05, 2003 |
They're At the Door... November 18, 2001 |
I Don't Know How... October 12, 2003 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
FREEDOM! FREEDOM! ....ya gotta give what you take...
Hi! My name is Freedom. I'm a terrible Paul McCartney song.
I don't think the kids that wrote this is names freedom, I think its the name of the balloon, and it sounds like freedom died on your front lawn.
one of the greatest find stories of all time. a note in a corked bottle found along the beach is next, i hope!
obvious question: what words would you leave in a balloon for a stranger to find in a random front yard?
" . . . if you don't, you and your family will be cursed forever. thanks . . . " can anyone beat that?
That curse went over like a lead balloon.
@ Minphx:
I don't know what message I'd include, but I would definitely not omit the date and location of the balloon launch.
Freedom
Freedom
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from my home
Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone
A long, long, long, way, way from my home
I suspect parental intervention and that the consequences used to be more severe. Likely, the note originally said:
My name is Freedom.
If you caught me and I can fly,
let me go so I am roam the sky.
If you don't, you and your family will DIE.
The metre is a bit rough but the rhyme pattern is unmistakable.
How do u think this card was attached to the balloon? There is no hole in the card to put a string through.
blue in the bayou...you read my mind. That's EXACTLY the first thing that came to my mind. Makes me want to break out the tape. (Yes there was a time, young ones, before cds and mp3s, and when this one came out, I only owned about two cd's. I had a huge box in my car full of bulky warbly tapes. I hear old George is trying to make a comeback.)
Freedom really needs to work on his cursive Fs.. Looks like his name is Lreedom.
Me *and* my family, eh? Leave them outta this you little balloonatic, or I'll show you what being popped is really all about.
Curse me if you dare. Hell, curse me *forever*, I don't care; but mess with my family, buddy, and I'll deflate you faster than a NASCAR blowout.
Now get up and get the hell off my lawn or I'll show you what freedom *really* means.
Deflated Freedom.
option #1: let freedom fly away and nobody gets hurt.
option #2: restrain freedom and risk the curse of doom.
where is the option #3 provision in case freedom is no longer capable of flying on it's own? this contract is incomplete.
Hey, Deanna, I thought of Richie Havens too ! LOL !
Very cool find especially tied to a drifted away balloon ! It's me - the one who never finds anything.It does look like a kids' handwriting.Glad to see there's an adventurous, creative kid out there sending messages that way !
@hilary - good observations. You a lawyer or something?
@ I'm in over my head, i wonder if the note was folded. I think i see fold marks on the card, and the ribbon was tied around it?
@nightingale, i definitely agree, time and date of the launch is necessary.
This kid is strange. That's all i have to say for now.
one more thing, not related. Was pepper voted off the island?
I hope you let that card go after you trapped it in your scanner and raped a clone out of freedom.
Night in Gale: I think you might have to change your name to Night Owl. Good grief woman do you ever sleep?
If you caught me and I can still fly,
Let me go so I can roam the sky,
But if you don't, you and your family will be...
I'm with Jan. Looks like they put something and had to change it. You and your family will be fried? Plyed? Deprived?
Doesn't this kid know that they're just polluting the Earth with their silly balloon notes?
Made me think of 'In Hevan', my favourite find ever:
http://www.foundmagazine.com/comments/1048
There's something poetic about letting a mesage float where it will (curse or no curse).
An entry for a competition of the American Society of Speech Writers for Incumbent Presidents forEver, (it has quite an acronym!) in the Future Speech Writer category...
I can hear GW now...
Oops! My politics are showing. Better tuck that back in...
@So clever: hahaha!
@Mona: and location. Don't forget location! (Don't you want to know how far it travelled?)
@CuriousKat: sometimes I even oversleep. And I'm off today!
*In best GW voice*
"If you do not except our freedom, you will be cursed forever. And I'm talking a hardcore curse. A Never Meeting Your True Love Cat Getting Run Over By A Car Tree Falling Through Your Bedroom curse!"
At least the note is not telling you to send balloons to 7 of your friends in the next ten minutes...Quick and to the pointless.
Well Mr. Hopper I think you are safe from the curse of freedom. You have give this message more than wings, you circulated it around the globe. Enjoy the bounty of freedom. Good thing it happened before your birthday!
Freedom is not free: It's 1 for 25 cents or 5 for a dollar at your local Party City.
@Deanna: Thank you thank you thank you for the Richie Havens moment. Switching tracks to that song... Now!
Ah freedom that elusive thing. You catch it, but you have to let it go, or else it will put a curse on you.
On a side note, what's with all the slightly poetic finds lately? Not that I'm complaining, they're very beautiful, but isn't that a little unusual?
You will be cursed, and you will have no more ppiness for the rest of your days.
"I AM William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men... and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?"
William Wallace in Braveheart
So, according to this Find, freedom is just a broken child's toy? That's what I thought.
Ok. Lars in nwc, game time.
Hi!
My name is common cold. If you caught me and I can still fly let me go so I can infect your school or place of work, but if you don't you and your family will be coughing and sneezing within 3 days.
Thanks,
common cold.
Okay my turn to submit lyrics:
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Nothing don't mean nothing honey if it aint' free
"I need some freedom
Freedom for my people
I want some freedom
Freedom for my people"
Does anyone else remember ever seeing a short film which involved some guys getting stranded in a desert, nearly starving to death, seeing a white dove flying over head, shooting it, and roasting it (with the olive branch still clutched in its beak)? I remember the one guy saying something like "Oh man this has to be some baaaad karma!" and the other guy telling him to "just shut up!"
Freedom starts with condoms.
Hmm, I wonder if there's a punishment for capturing Freedom's soul via camera (or scanner) before sending it on its way.
I remember when I was about nine years old, asking my father if I could send a note tied to a balloon to a deceased loved one who had passed on. He told me I was silly.
my dad died when my daughters were only 4 yrs old. Whenever they'd lose a balloon, for years after, they'd ask if it was going to where Poppa was.
Mona, that's sweet.
Freedom lyrics? Sure!
"America stands for freedom
But if you think you're free
Try walking into a deli
And urinating on the cheese!"
Let's see if Turbo knows that one (without Googling it).
Nadine, I was just listening to "Piece of my Heart" last night. Janis sure could belt 'em out. Have you ever noticed how derivative Axl Rose sometimes was of her vocal stylings?
When I was in grade school my class released a bunch of balloons with a message tied to it. Then years later we found out how bird would die from the balloons. I wonder how many birds we killed from our one class...
Nice going, Jill.
I do what I can.
@Flargy
I know those lyrics! but I won't tell :]
I say for a child's balloon, possibly for a class?
she is sure threatening..
@I want in:
Dove are actually quite delicious wrapped in bacon with barbeque sauce cooked on a charcoal grill. A slice of jalapena inside adds a nice kick.
Since freedom isn't free, I'd put my name and address on the card so someone can send me $20.
I don't want your freedom
I don't need to play 'round
I don't want nobody baby
Part time love just brings me down
(Love Janis Joplin, but it also brought to mind Aretha Franklin's "Think")
And so the balloon revolt begins....
Oh good ... now this "freedom" message is here on my computer screen and since I can't send it on to anyone else me and my family will be cursed forever. Thanks for nothing!
@Flargy - yes, I see what you mean.
I am also reminded of the time my boyfriend coached youth league basketball. For some reason, we got all the kids weren't choosen at the draft and it was a real "Bad News Bears" type of team.
Then our star player was removed from the team by his parents because of a fight he was involved in at school. That day, one of his classmates (on another team, though), came up to us before they game and says "I curse you all!" because he was the kid our teammate had beat up.
@ in way over yur head
We used to put the message inside a plastic sandwich bag, so it wouldn't get ruined in the rain. And if that added a little bit more pollution action to the releasing of balloons too, well then so much the better!
Flargy, I'm not a big Vandals fan but I have spent a Christmas with them. I had to Google it. Interestingly enough, the second time today I had to put "urinating on the cheese" in the search box.
@I'm in way over my head here! :
As the Freedom balloon finder, I can confirm that "mona lisa in the louvre" was pretty close to guessing correctly from the visible crease marks--the card was rolled up (as well as a 3x5 index card can be rolled) and tied with the ribbon.
@Me! :
You should be happy to know that the card is not trapped in my scanner. It is in the fine hands of FOUND founder Davy Rothbart. About a year after submitting the scan to foundmagazine.com (which was 2 years ago now, mind you--didn't think it would ever show up here), I gave it to Davy at a local FOUND event, hoping it would make its way into one of the books--still waiting for that... :)
I Love to belt out Me&Bobby McGee Just like Janis.. she was kinda narrrsty, but she had a real bitchin' voice.
Was there some '70's song with a line that went.. "freeeedom, keep talkin'..." (that's all I remember. And maybe it was "keep walkin'" Seems it was the Doobie Bros or something maybe?)
Kid logic dictates that a balloon going up, up, and away would be going straight to heaven.
@Simplar: SO glad you sent this in. We love it. We might be slooooooow, but we really love it. And to other people who've scanned and uploaded your finds, have hope. We'll be turning things out doubly fast now, if not more than that...
I won't let you down. I will not give you up. I would really, really love to stick around.
Oh yeah.
ok.... he's back
hi!
my name is un-invisible-fenced-dog-next-door. if you caught me and i can still run let me go so i can poop wherever i want, but if you don't you and your family will be cleaning your shoes forever.
thanks,
uifdnd
@ the captain: yeesh, not the doobies. bread. "mother freedom" was the name of the song and it was a great one, wasn't it? along with "baby im-a want you" and my fave, "diary." ah the 70s.
Mona--I noticed his return, too. Not sure why Jason didn't delete that.
I must go weep now. Badgers are down by 15.
Who's he? Did I miss something mona?
gone now. i'll say no more about the troll
whats cool is that i have a friend really named Justice. perhaps they should meet and have a teaparty
In the town where I went to school there was a Mexican restaurant and the kids of the owners all had "American Patriotic" names. One was named Liberty and I might just be imagining it now but one of them MAY have been named Freedom.
@Lars: Bread! I loved them but haven't heard them in years.
If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can't I paint youuuu?
My mom or my aunt listened to Bread.. and Cat Stevens, too- he was cool. I wonder why I remember all those other Bread Songs, but not the Mother Freedom one.
Farmer..., you said it all! Balloonatic - great word.
@mona: nope, a student. thanks for asking. =)
Hey, I grew up with a kid named Freedom in Lincoln, NE. He was my little brother Alex's best friend. I wonder if he still goes by Freedom? We also knew another girl, Tiffany, who changed her name to Liberty.
I love this find. My brother and I used to tie notes to balloons and leave our address to see if anyone would write us to say where it landed. They never did though. It probably wouldn't be safe to do that now-a-days anyway.
@ Minphx:
If it landed in the right yard, this would rule,
"Let go of the Ballon Paul"
Hi my name is freedom,
I've just littered on your front lawn
If you touch so help me I'll
CURSE YOU!