High school girl's purse lost in 1957 found in 2019 and wheat cents given to her kids

WillieBoyd2

A student’s purse that went missing in 1957 was discovered in 2019 between a set of lockers and a wall during repairs and has turned into a long-lost time capsule from the 1950s.

ABC News article:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/student-lost-purse-1957-discovered-locker-62-years/story?id=69041942

The former student passed away in 2013 so the purse was given to her five kids.

Each of her five children kept one of the wheat pennies as a token of remembrance of their mom.

A 1957 cent (not one of the purse cents)

United States Cent 1957-D

TurtleCat

That’s a neat story. I wonder how the purse got there?

silverpop

ricko

Great story.... Five cents in 1957 would buy 'penny' candies or a whole chocolate bar... even a single scoop ice cream cone....I was just fifteen then and mowed lawns, shoveled snow, pulled poison ivy and other chores to get money... along with my paper route...Cheers, RickO

JeffersonFrog

I love time-capsule stories such as this one. You know those BU images floating in your mind after seeing @WillieBoyd2 pic? Well, after 52 years in a dusty locker crevice, not so much. Enjoy.

koynekwest

That happened just a few miles south of here.

johnny9434

that brought a smile

CaptHenway

@ricko said:
Great story.... Five cents in 1957 would buy 'penny' candies or a whole chocolate bar... even a single scoop ice cream cone....I was just fifteen then and mowed lawns, shoveled snow, pulled poison ivy and other chores to get money... along with my paper route...Cheers, RickO

Looking for 2 cent pop bottles!

Gemstrike

This story reminds me of when the Post Office I worked in was remodeled. A customer apparently thought the space in two sections of the lobby wall was the mail drop. When the wall was opened up during the remodeling two letters were discovered jammed into the wall. The stamps used were from the late 1940's era. A return address was on the envelopes and there some discussion as to send them on to the utilitiy company or return them to the sender. It was decided to return them to the sender and this was done. Amazingly the family was still at this residence. The actual sender had passed.

yosclimber

Was there a wild fight over the 2 dimes?

yspsales

Did they not clean behind or replace the lockers in 62 years?

mannie gray

@yspsales said:
Did they not clean behind or replace the lockers in 62 years?

Apparently not.

MWallace

@Gemstrike said:
This story reminds me of when the Post Office I worked in was remodeled. A customer apparently thought the space in two sections of the lobby wall was the mail drop. When the wall was opened up during the remodeling two letters were discovered jammed into the wall. The stamps used were from the late 1940's era. A return address was on the envelopes and there some discussion as to send them on to the utilitiy company or return them to the sender. It was decided to return them to the sender and this was done. Amazingly the family was still at this residence. The actual sender had passed.

They probably complained for years about how the post office had lost their mail.

OPA

@ricko said:
Great story.... Five cents in 1957 would buy 'penny' candies or a whole chocolate bar... even a single scoop ice cream cone....I was just fifteen then and mowed lawns, shoveled snow, pulled poison ivy and other chores to get money... along with my paper route...Cheers, RickO

As a 14 year H.S. student, living in KC MO at the time, I used to stop at Katz's drug store after school to play the pin ball machine, have a burger with chips and a coke, for 50 cents.

ElmerFusterpuck

This was a fun story. Would have been cool if all the wheat cents were 1955 doubled dies!

asheland

Cool story!