A Box Full of Memories
A box of memories
Last night before I left work, my boss Jeanine gave me an interesting task to take on, if I chose to. When she told me what it was, I agreed to it without question.
Before the store moved into its present location, it was in business for about nine years on another street. About three years ago, that store caught fire. While everyone was cleaning out what was left behind, the owners found a box of someone's belongings. Apparently, they were the property of the person who had leased that location before my boss did.
This box held scrapbooks, yearbooks, photo albums, letters, awards, and a high school letterman's jacket that all belonged to a man named Dennis Pierce. And were all dated from the 1960s. Jeanine asked me if I would be interested in trying to find Dennis to return his box to him. She said, and I totally agreed with her, that if it were me, I'd want to have all that stuff back. And even if Dennis were deceased, I'd like the kids or family to have it. I took the scrapbook home with me last night.
Philly loves detective work. One thing he told me he was always interested in doing was working as an investigator. So, I mentioned this project to him and asked if he'd like to help...
He basically took it over! :)
Anyway, last night we went through the scrapbook looking for names and places that might give us a lead on tracking down Mr. Pierce. We couldn't find much. Then Philly thought about trying to track down his father, since he was mentioned more often in some places. We did. Philly learned that his parents owned a farm in Malta, ID. After that, we went to bed.
This morning, I took over. :) Since Philly doesn't like talking to strangers all that much, I called the post office in Malta to ask if anyone had an address or any information on Dale Pierce, Dennis' father, who was the former postmaster there till he retired in 1999 (at age 81!) They didn't, but told me that he was living in Burley now. I asked for the phone number of the Burley post office and called there. The Burley post office couldn't give me an address, but he did give me a phone number for Dale Pierce. I thanked him and then called Dale Pierce.
I suppose it was Dennis' mom who answered. I asked for Dale Pierce, and when I was on the phone with him, I explained who I was and the reason for my call. He informed me, sadly, that Dennis had passed away. But asked if I might ship the box to him, as he would love to have that back. I said it would be my pleasure to, and got his address. He offered to pay for the shipping, but I said since I didn't know how much it would be, that I'd rather if he wanted to, he could just reimburse that when the box arrived. I don't know if Jeanine and Jon will even ask for that, but he made the offer, so I'll leave it to them to work out the details. Philly and I did our part and I feel great about it.
This old man was so excited to hear that his son's awards, letters, scrapbook and pictures and so many other things would be returned to the family. He has to be close to ninety years old... I'm just amazed.
And I felt really good about it. :)
Last night before I left work, my boss Jeanine gave me an interesting task to take on, if I chose to. When she told me what it was, I agreed to it without question.
Before the store moved into its present location, it was in business for about nine years on another street. About three years ago, that store caught fire. While everyone was cleaning out what was left behind, the owners found a box of someone's belongings. Apparently, they were the property of the person who had leased that location before my boss did.
This box held scrapbooks, yearbooks, photo albums, letters, awards, and a high school letterman's jacket that all belonged to a man named Dennis Pierce. And were all dated from the 1960s. Jeanine asked me if I would be interested in trying to find Dennis to return his box to him. She said, and I totally agreed with her, that if it were me, I'd want to have all that stuff back. And even if Dennis were deceased, I'd like the kids or family to have it. I took the scrapbook home with me last night.
Philly loves detective work. One thing he told me he was always interested in doing was working as an investigator. So, I mentioned this project to him and asked if he'd like to help...
He basically took it over! :)
Anyway, last night we went through the scrapbook looking for names and places that might give us a lead on tracking down Mr. Pierce. We couldn't find much. Then Philly thought about trying to track down his father, since he was mentioned more often in some places. We did. Philly learned that his parents owned a farm in Malta, ID. After that, we went to bed.
This morning, I took over. :) Since Philly doesn't like talking to strangers all that much, I called the post office in Malta to ask if anyone had an address or any information on Dale Pierce, Dennis' father, who was the former postmaster there till he retired in 1999 (at age 81!) They didn't, but told me that he was living in Burley now. I asked for the phone number of the Burley post office and called there. The Burley post office couldn't give me an address, but he did give me a phone number for Dale Pierce. I thanked him and then called Dale Pierce.
I suppose it was Dennis' mom who answered. I asked for Dale Pierce, and when I was on the phone with him, I explained who I was and the reason for my call. He informed me, sadly, that Dennis had passed away. But asked if I might ship the box to him, as he would love to have that back. I said it would be my pleasure to, and got his address. He offered to pay for the shipping, but I said since I didn't know how much it would be, that I'd rather if he wanted to, he could just reimburse that when the box arrived. I don't know if Jeanine and Jon will even ask for that, but he made the offer, so I'll leave it to them to work out the details. Philly and I did our part and I feel great about it.
This old man was so excited to hear that his son's awards, letters, scrapbook and pictures and so many other things would be returned to the family. He has to be close to ninety years old... I'm just amazed.
And I felt really good about it. :)