A couple of months ago we painted and fixed up a small bedroom. This being an old house, we had layers of wallpaper we had to remove. We also did some wall repair. When we removed a portion of the drywall we found this message written on the inside of the wall.
The writing seems completely “random” as the kids would say. But, it is not. In the late 60’s Scope mouthwash ran a series of television ads featuring “The Green Phantom.” In the ads bottles of mouthwash were mysteriously delivered to folks with bad breath. Accompanying the bottles was a note signed by The Green Phantom and urging the recipient to use the mouthwash. The ship captain, teacher, manager or whomever received the mouthwash would then interrogate their underlings trying to unmask the offending Green Phantom. The whole thing was pretty funny.
I very vaguely recalled the ads and found them assembled for viewing at this Duke University website.
Don’t know who left the message, but I sure like their sense of humor. The Green Phantom, being associated with the competing Scope, would be just the sort to steal Listerine. Gave us a big laugh.
We closed the wall leaving this silly fun message intact. Just as work was done 40 years ago and as we did work this summer, I am sure that someone in the future will again work on this small room in this old house. We’ll leave for them the joy of uncovering this amusing plea.

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