Curley: I met Dolly Parton while living as a ‘Tuesday boy’ for a wealthy woman

It was New Year’s Eve, and I was 22 years old. I was having some drinks with my roommate, and when the bill came, all my drinks had been paid for, and none of Matt’s had been paid for. And there was a note at the bottom. It said, I enjoyed looking at you all evening. I think you’re quite handsome. And then she left her phone number and her address.

Now this is before everything got all gross with STDs. And I said to Matt, “This is interesting.”

He said, “I think she wants you to, like, call her and then celebrate New Year’s Eve with her.”

So I did, and I got in the car, got a cab, and, like, took it uptown, and I got invited in, and I went upstairs, and I ended up spending the night there.

In the morning, when she asked what I did for a living, I told her I was driving a truck, just temporarily, until the showbiz thing got going. And she said, “Well, if you’re driving around, would you mind picking up a few things for me? Here’s a $100 bill. I need some dry cleaning.”

So I got the $100, and I went and got the dry cleaning, a few other things, I don’t know, half a pound of hamburger. Can’t remember. Came back. I met her back there, and I gave her the change, gave her the dry cleaning, gave her the meat. And she said, “You could keep the change.”

And then she says, “Where are you having dinner tonight? Where are you going?”

And I said, “Nowhere. I go back to my little, humble village.”

She said, “Why don’t you stay?”

So I did. The next day there were things that needed to be picked up, but I was still driving a truck. And then I got the $100, I gave her the change, and then eventually there was less and less to go out and have to pick up. I mean, how much dry cleaning can a single woman produce in a single week? Who needs all that meat?

I quit the trucking job, and I just hung out all day. Perfectly normal.

An elevator ride with Dolly Parton

One day, while in the elevator, all of a sudden I hear, “Hey, hold on, hold the door.”

And around the corner comes Dolly Parton. She lived in the same building. I still remember she had this, like, super tight, jean jumper on, and it was halfway zipped down. And I was in the elevator with her when the beautiful doors of this beautiful condominium closed, and on the mahogany of the thing, somebody had scratched in the F word.

And she said, “Did you do that?”

I said, “No, I didn’t do that.”

She goes, “I think you did that.”

I said, “Dolly, I did not scratch that onto the door.”

And she goes, “Well, I got a wall in my apartment, and I need something like that done on the wall, just as art.”

I said to her, “OK, I’ll be honest with you, I did do that.”

She goes, “I knew I could get you to confess.”

And then I got off on the 14th floor, and she went up to whatever floor the 17th or whatever she was on. And that was my Dolly Parton meeting.

One evening at a party, it was late, and the woman I thought was my girlfriend, the woman I was living with, said, “Have you met Sarah?”

And I said, “Yeah, I did. She seems very nice.”

She said, “I’d like you to go home with her.”

And I said, “What?”

She goes, “Well, I told you I would like you to go home with her tonight.”

She goes, “Well, I’m leaving, and I just wanna let you know that if you don’t, then don’t bother coming home.”

And I didn’t, and when she left, I turned to this guy who’s there, and he said, “What’s your problem?”

And I said, “The problem is, like, I’m dating her.”

And he laughs. And he goes, “You guys are not dating, don’t you just basically run errands for her, and you’re not dating her. Look at the difference.”

He goes, “Look at this party. Every single guy here, this party is about your age, and everybody else is, like, in their 40s and 50s, we’re not dating.”

I said, “Yeah, we are.”

I was fairly naive as a Catholic school kid. I haven’t done a lot of dating and stuff like that, and he goes, “Let me just ask you something. When you moved in with your new girlfriend, were there already clothes that fit you?”

I said, “Yeah.”

“Shoes that fit you? Suits that fit you?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“Why is that? Where did those come from? Who was that guy? The other guy she was dating before you was the exact same size. They fit you perfectly. You’re her type. She basically hired you. You were working for her, and she’d like you as her employer. She’s telling you as the employee to go home with Sarah,” he said.

And I said, “Well, is it that you maybe that’s a setup you got, but not me, baby. I don’t do that.”

The night I learned I was a ‘Tuesday boy’

And then I went back. It was like two in the morning. I went to the front door. I knew everybody worked there because I didn’t do anything all day, so I knew. I was like, “Edgar, let me in.”

“No, I can’t let you in. Mr. Curley, she won’t let me,” he said.

I was like, “What do you mean?”

“She said you can’t come home,” he said.

I was like, “Cmon, let me in. Let me in.”

So I spent the night right there in front, at the park, on a bench in front. She came out in the morning, like at 6:30 in the morning, and I go, “Hey, whoa, whoa. What is going on?”

She goes, “I told you, if you didn’t go home with her, don’t bother coming back.”

“So what about my stuff? I got stuff in there,” I said.

She goes, “You don’t have anything in there.”

And that was the end of it.

But the guy’s like, “Yeah, you’re a Tuesday boy.”

This post is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It was edited for clarity.

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