one more from maddie doyle.

one of the best from nick haig-arack

"make mine a soy chai."

elesa's story via maddie doyle.

"i think tom waits just got into my car."

not tom waits

one of my favorites from sarah hadley

on halloween at rite aid

one more from vanessa.

"i think they were getting matching suits or something."

another one from will butler

"thomas waits"

short and sweet from nick codling.

spilling hot beverages

maddie gave me three secondhand stories about waitressing and tom waits. here's the first one.

(i had originally thought that i would edit out the "hey susie it's blahblahblahs" and the "okay, sorry it sucks, see you later bye!" of all of these phone calls i received, but i really like them the way they are.)

will butler was gracious enough to give me three stories! here's one of them.

vanessa was kind enough to record this with me while she was in baltimore visiting for a couple of days in march.

this is a story from matt clarke. we used to work together at the rialto. probably around the same time i thought about doing this project. my coworkers would always have stories about tom waits coming in, but i had no idea what he looked like/hadn't even heard his music before or known who he was until i moved to sonoma county.

this is one of my favorite stories so far, from rachel.

dear sonoma county residents,

i am collecting stories about tom waits. i have never met or seen the man and i don't even know what he looks like. i've heard many stories and would like to collect them all. no story is too small! before i moved to santa rosa, i had no idea who tom waits was. hadn't heard his music, didn't know what he looked like, could care less. when i started hearing all of these stories about him from friends i created this very strange version of him in my head. the funniest thing about the stories is that they are so very ordinary. i also think it's neat that so many people are connected to this one common story theme. if you participate, i promise to send you a copy of the collection in the form of a neat handmade tape or CD. all you have to do is get in touch with me and i'll give you a call and record our "interview", or you can just leave me a voicemail here: 410 929 7842. it's a skype number, so don't worry about waking me or anything.

thank you.
susie