Alex Carson
High School Memories
Many people look back at their high school days fondly. This is why many of us look forward to our high school reunion. It is also the reason many people hold onto their high school yearbooks. Experts believe that we remember our high school years so fondly because the memories that we hold onto are our strongest. This is why many Alzheimer’s patients remember things that happened in the past more vividly than things that took place earlier in the day. While your memories of high school may still be strong, your keepsakes may be gone. The more you move around, the easier it is to lose things from your high school days. There are a lucky few who are reunited with the keepsakes that they believed to be gone forever.
Class Ring
High school students often wear class rings. In 2017, a woman named Ann Caldwell from Augusta, Georgia found a class ring sitting in an old dresser. She didn’t recognize the ring, and there was a good reason why. It belonged to a student from Weatherford High School in Weatherford, Oklahoma, which was over 1,000 miles from Ann’s home. She wanted to find the ring’s rightful owner. It took a bit of detective work. She called Chad Wilson, the superintendent of schools in Weatherford. The ring belonged to a student from the class of 1969, so Chad looked at the previous yearbooks. The ring also had the initials, C.S. Engraved and after looking at the yearbook, he discovered that the ring belonged to Coy Sullivan. He had lost the ring back in 1960.
Tracking Down the Owner
Chad managed to track down Coy. It was then that Ann discovered how she ended up with the ring. Her late husband was from Clinton, Oklahoma, which was right next to Weatherford. Her late husband’s family owned a laundry business. Coy believes that he must have left the ring in the pocket of a piece of clothing that he took to be cleaned. After 60 years of not knowing where his ring was, Coy finally had it back. He says that he will wear his ring to his class reunion which will be held in July 2019. It will be his 60th-year reunion.
Greater Clark County Schools
Coy’s class ring isn’t the only piece of high school memorabilia that has been found years after being lost. Greater Clark Schools is located in Indiana. In 2019, the school department was in the process of demolishing the old Jeffersonville High School to make way for a new school. The campus had been closed since 1971. After the school closed, students were moved to a new building in the east end of the city.
Jeffersonville High School
Jeffersonville High was located at the corner of Meigs Avenue and Court Avenue and opened its doors in 1913. During that time, plenty of changes were made. One was when African-American students were allowed to attend the school in the ’40s. The worker hired to demolish the school knew that it had history and they were careful while taking it down. They never expected to find something that dated back decades.
The Black Purse
In January 2019, the construction workers were pulling old cabinets from what was once the science room. While doing this, they found a small black purse. Since the school had been abandoned for years, they knew that the purse had to be old. When they looked inside, they found a lipstick, a pin, a compact, a stick of Juicy Fruit gum, and a bus schedule for the Jefferson High School’s 1953-1954 basketball team. A Purse From 1954 Was Found In A High School – And The Treasures Inside Revealed A Sweet Love Story.
The Note
There were a few items in the purse that contained the name of the purse’s owner. There were an ID and social security card for Martha Ina Ingham. She was a senior in 1955. There was something else in the purse that moved the workers. It was a handwritten note to a girl named Marty. It was from a boy asking her to go with him to the prom. The note read, “Dear Marty, I’ve heard that Paul has asked you to go to the prom with him. If he hasn’t, I would like very much to take you. Love, Torchy. P.S. If you have already consented to go with Paul, please forget that I have asked. If he has asked, but you haven’t consented yet, please consider my invitation.” Everything in the purse was dated 1954. The workers assumed that Martha had left it in the science room and had forgotten all about it.
Turning To Social Media
The workers decided to turn the purse over to the school department. They used social media to find the rightful owner of the purse. They went on the Greater Clark Country Schools Facebook page and posted a photo of the bag. They included a caption that read, “Lost and Found Alert: Martha Ina Ingham’s handbag from 1954 has been found in the Franklin Square demolition. We would love to return it to her and her family! Please contact Erin Bojorquez, Public Information Officer.”
Finding Martha
The post was shared and commented on thousands of times. When a relative of Martha’s saw it, they shared it with her son. He was able to tell his mother that someone had found her purse. She couldn’t believe it when she heard that her purse had been found.
Who Took Her To Prom?
Everyone on social media who saw the post was dying to know if Martha went to prom with Torchy or Paul. After graduating from high school, Martha was married twice and went by the last name, Everett. She had four children, seven grandchildren, and was a great grandmother. When she heard about her purse being found, she said that it brought back memories that she had completely forgotten about. She also let the world know who she went to prom with. It wasn’t Torchy or Paul. She went to junior prom with a boy named Carter Williams. He had also written her a note that was in the purse. It read, “Dear Marty, Bobbie and I aren’t going back together. I’m just continuing to walk her to classes. She asked me if I would, and I told her that I would. But I am just trying to be friends with everybody, and I decided to start on the girls that I have done wrong. Is there anything wrong with that? I just want to be friends with everyone. I think Paul is an alright guy, but you’ll never catch him, he runs too fast. He asked her to the prom, and she said yes. Finally, the world had their answers and Martha had her purse back.
