The Woodbourne Farms bed-and-breakfast promises peace and quiet, but the owners haven't had either since their telephone number appeared in a booklet accompanying the latest release from rockers Van Halen.
"It's been a nightmare," said Sara Lee Strickland. "I can't describe it any worse."The calls began in June, when the brotherly heavy metal band released the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge."
Callers asked for "Alex," presumably the drummer-brother of guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
"I finally asked one kid why he was calling here for Alex," Strickland said. "I thought there was a drug dealer in town, and he said, `It's on the album.' I asked him `What album?' He told me."
The booklet includes a series of photographs, one of a blackboard with several illegible telephone numbers. A number in the center is legible, and it belongs to Strickland and her husband, Charles.
The band's publicist said the numbers were randomly selected and the area code listed before the Stricklands' number was not 717, the code for northeast Pennsylvania. It wasn't meant to be any number.
Strickland said she has received almost 1,000 phone calls, and lately, long-distance operators have been calling, too. Parents of youngsters who made the first calls are questioning charges on their telephone bills.
"They tell me, `Your phone number is on their bill, and they don't know anyone in Pennsylvania,' " Strickland said. "I tell them to ask if they have a teenager in the house."