For years while we worked together in Greenfield, Jamie and I carpooled to work. We would pass the same people frequently on our commute. One of those people we saw so much, we affectionately named her “The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses”. There was also “The Guy Who Loves The Nields” and “The Car With The Wing” but this story isn’t about that. It’s about “The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses”.

When one of is would see her, we would go “Ohhhhhhh!” which eventually evolved into just a shriek. One day one of us recognized that that there’s a similar shriek at the end of Friday I’m In Love by The Cure. To this day, even though Jamie and I no longer work together, we both see her still around the valley. She’s since traded in her silver Chevy for a green Kia, but after that we still recognized her because she was either wearing the funky sunglasses, or put the funky sunglasses on her dashboard on cloudy days. These funky sunglasses are hard to miss.

She must live in or around Easthampton, because she’s been seen at various spots around Easthampton and Northampton as well as on the commute to Greenfield.

Anyhow, to this day, if I see The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses, sometimes my excitement cannot be contained and I’ll leave a message for Jamie on his cell phone or something and give him a classic Friday, I’m In Love shriek.

When he hears it, he knows that The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses has been spotted about the area.

Actually… a similar message was one of the early impressions I made on Jamie’s wife, Jo. Oh, what she must have thought.

Tags: 80s music, carpool, greenfield, shriek, the crazy lady with the funky sunglasses, the cure