LAURIE (STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN)
(Milton C. Addington / Cathie Harmon)

Dickey Lee - 1965



Last night at the dance I met Laurie
So lovely and warm, an angel of a girl
Last night I fell in love with Laurie
Strange things happen in this world

As I walked her home, she said it was her birthday
I pulled her close and said, "Will I see you anymore?"
Then suddenly she asked for my sweater
And said that she was very, very cold

I kissed her goodnight at her door and started home
Then thought about my sweater and went right back instead
I knocked at her door and a man appeared
I told him why I'd come, then he said

"You're wrong, son, you weren't with my daughter
How can you be so cruel to come to me this way?
My Laurie left this world on her birthday
She died a year ago today"

A strange force drew me to the graveyard
I stood in the dark, I saw the shadows wave
And then I looked and saw my sweater
Lyin' there upon her grave

Strange things happen in this world


TRIVIA:
*This song was inspired by a ghost story written for a Memphis
newspaper by 15-year-old Cathie Harmon.

** Her story may have been inspired by the legend of "Resurrection
Mary", described as a shy young woman with very cold hands. A number
of young men reportedly encountered her at dance parties in Chicago
beginning in the 1930s. Escorted or given a ride home, she typically
asked to be dropped off at Resurrection Cemetery on Archer Avenue,
asking her escort not to follow her. In 1939 a man named Jerry Palus
met her at the Liberty Grove dance hall and she told him her actual
home address. Going there the following day, he found an older woman
who verified that she had had such a daughter, who had died many
years before. Her picture was identical to the girl Jerry had
escorted to the graveyard. (c. Songfacts)