When Joyce Stratman lost her wallet about 60 years ago , she never expected to see it again . She had been a freshman at Cambria - Friesland Middle School and High School in Wisconsin when her friend slip her little red billfold and hide it on top of a footlocker room partition bulwark . It was meant to be a prank , but the wallet end up falling through a hole in the cinder blocks where it was impossible to recall . " We both joked that one Clarence Day the school would be torn down and someone would find it , ” she recount theDaily Citizenfor a recent story .
The scenario Joyce jest about as a teenager is exactly what happen decades subsequently . In June , a construction crew remodeling the school ’s locker way discovered an former billfold , and thanks to some detective work , it ’s finally found its way of life back to its owner .
The notecase Joyce Stratman lost did n’t have a driver ’s license or any other form of recognition , but it was filled with clues . There were one-time photographs , a school dejeuner ticket , and cartridge clip press cutting insert inside the folding . The biggest atomic number 82 come from a yellowed tack of seamed paper with notes from a Bible class : The name Joyce D. was written at the top .
Steve De Young , the gaffer of the mental synthesis gang , partake in the discovery with his father - in - law Glenn Smits , who had graduated from Cambria Union High School in 1963 . When he saw the name he think of his cousin Joyce Stratman , whose original name was Joyce Dyksta .
When De Young ’s wife texted his first cousin , who now lives in Michigan , she confirmed his misgiving . Stratman did n’t find any hard currency or valuable in the notecase when it was returned to her , but she did find several precious artifacts she thought had been lost perpetually . There were photos of her Quaker and siblings taken more than 60 years ago . She even found a lock of her sister ’s hair . After being reminded of the onetime store , she called up the Quaker who had been creditworthy for losing the wallet in the first position and thanked her for reach the experience possible .
Sixty years is a long time to pass before discover a lost billfold , but it ’s not a phonograph record . Just a few week ago , a notecase that had been lost for75 yearswas recovered from a church vent in Missouri .
[ h / tDaily Citizen ]
