Parties and lunches weren’t the only contact I had with Bop City callers. Going through the folder into which I tossed everything Ralphie-related, I’ve found quite a bit of correspondence, which I’ll dig into further in the near future. But one of the things that leaped right out was the wedding invitation.
Regular callers developed a real connection with the project, and quite a few of them called for years. Answer quality of the regulars varied, but many were consistently interesting (to me, at least).

One woman with high quality responses began calling when she lived in Florida. She was single, but after some time – maybe a year – she met a guy. The guy moved somewhere either out west, or perhaps it was the northern midwest, or maybe I don’t remember. But the boyfriend moved. The woman caller moved to join him. After a year or two, they decided to get married, and moved back to Florida, and they invited me.
They sent a wedding invitation, and a note that they’d put me up if I could fnd a way to get down there. I seem to recall that I called her back to regretfully decline, and we had a pleasant, if short, conversation gently tinged with unreality. I don’t recall if I sent a gift.
Like I said, a connection with the project.
My ex-wife never left a message that I can recall, but was always very supportive of the idea. She came across a matchbook somewhere that had a teeny coupon inside the cover, where you could order 50 matchbooks with your custom message on the outside in gold letters. She gave me a box for my birthday one year (above) and I gave almost all of them out eventually in the Authorized Representative’s Kits, along with the business cards and, occasionally, a newsletter.
The MP3 is a topic that appeared regularly for many years, because it always produced good answers: The holidays are here; please tell us about your weirdest relatives. Have you met my Aunt Mildred?.