In 2019, a custodian making repairs at North Canton Middle School in Ohio found something covered in dust behind a set of lockers: a woman’s wallet that had been trapped there for 62 years, exactly since 1957.
Inside were black-and-white photos of friends, family members, and a dog, a North Canton Vikings football schedule, pencils, a ruler, makeup, a comb, and 26 cents in coins. A perfect portrait of the everyday life of a teenage girl in the fifties. The school turned to Facebook to find the owner, and users managed to identify her: Patti Rumfola, who had been a student at Hoover High School in 1957 and graduated in 1960. The problem was that Patti had died in 2013, at age 72, after retiring as a teacher in Annapolis, Maryland.
The wallet was returned to her five children, who opened it together during a family gathering. Inside they found that young version of their mother they had never known. Each kept a wheat penny as a memento. That same year Patti lost the wallet, the world saw the launch of Sputnik 1, the final scenes of “I Love Lucy”, and the death of Humphrey Bogart. The wallet did not just hold objects: it held an entire year.