A School Found A Purse That Was Lost Back In The 50s, And It’s Like A Time Capsule For People Of The Generation
Last spring, someone at North Canton Middle School stumbled upon an impressive artifact. Crammed in the corner of the wall next to a locker, there was a small, red purse covered in dust and spiderwebs. Upon closer inspection, the lucky finder realized that the purse belonged to a young lady named Patti Rumfola. According to the vintage things in her purse, Patti, who may have gone to school in the 1950s or 1960s, was around 14 years old at the time that she lost her precious belongings.
More info: Facebook
Last year, someone at North Canton Middle School found a mysterious bag that belonged to a teenager named Patti Rumfola
When this time capsule was first posted on North Canton City Schools’ Facebook page, the interesting photos gathered lots of attention.
People were eager to find the owner of the purse, which went missing 60 years ago. And they did. Sadly, Patti passed away in 2013, but her five children loved getting a glimpse into their mother’s life.
Patti was around 14 years old when she lost her bag
Not much more is known about the teenager who lost her purse, but with so many people taking an interest, the school decided to share her eulogy.
The bag was found crammed between a wall and a locker more than 60 years after it was lost
According to it, Patti was born in 1942 and spent her life working as a teacher. The woman was married and had 5 children. Patti died at the age of 71.
Even though people helped to track down Patti’s family, they found out that she died back in 2013
Patti died at the age of 71 after working as a teacher in Annapolis, Maryland for years
The purse contained various snippets of Patti’s life, such as library cards, tickets, photos, and makeup
“She enjoyed the Ladies of the Lake and her book and quilting clubs,” her obituary said
The coins that were left in her purse were split between her 5 children
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Share on FacebookThanks to the family for sharing this with the world! What a charming time capsule.
People often had such exquisite handwriting back then, they really took pride in it.
I remember having to write "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Over and over. My writing wasn't great back then, but my mother told me that smart people didn't have good hand writing lol. She had bad hand writing ... hmmmm. ;-)
Load More Replies...This was wonderful to see! Many thanks for this...yet I’m wondering just how this purse was lost.
Me too! I'm thinking it was pinched and hidden there as a joke, maybe a last day of High School prank. I had such "friends" in High School. I also wonder how it sat there for 60 years. Does no one clean?
Load More Replies...This is really cool. Makes me wonder what people would think of my purse if they found it 60/70 years later.
Same thought here. Except today everything personal is online. My purse is crammed with toiletry type things, a wallet stuffed with credit cards, maybe a notepad and pen and that's it. It wouldn't be interesting to see at all, whereas this woman's purse is filled with evidence of her social life and friends.
Load More Replies...Like a true teenager, she carries all her momentoes in her purse. I see that pressed powder is new - she must have been devastated to lose her purse. I wonder who the idiot was that hid her purse away. I hope the feels like the prat he is.
Now the next mission should be to find out who it was that hid the purse. Maybe they'll come forward eventually...
Load More Replies...This is awesome! I love digging through the past! A football game ticket was 35 cents!
I love the handwriting. Looked a lot like my grandma's. I love those days. They all obviously took such pride in their penmanship back then.
She lost a lot of membership cards and prized possessions 😞 Very inconvenient for anyone, let aside a teenager. Someone played a really dirty trick by shoving her purse there.
Oh I love this so much! I bet she regretted losing that purse! I'm sorry she died before it could be returned to her.
I personally would be MORTIFIED if the contents of my purse went viral.
I actually felt creepy by the end of the post. It's cool to put someone's personal stuff on the internet because they are dead? I dunno man. There was nothing "noteworthy" in here so it felt like a personal invasion.
Load More Replies...I am from North Canton and attended that same school. My mom went to school with Patti's sister. At that time the school was actually the high school, it became the middle school years later. Sadly the district didn't take as much care with that building as it did with the two high schools. The middle school was torn down a few years ago and I'm guessing that's when the purse was found. And no, hey did not put new lockers in!
Wonder if her and Bonnie were indeed always friends after school?? LoL
How sad must she have been to loose this, and what a shame she died before it was found.
Fascinating to see these ghosts of a past of some ordinary girl who became a nice, ordinary lady. But what will be the artifacts from today's middle schoolers decades from now? A bunch of Tik-Tok and Instagram b******t. Seeing them eating Tide pods 60 years from now will have none of the sepia toned, almost literary qualities of these things.
No one is ordinary. Also, teachers do one of the most important jobs in the world. One that is increasingly harder in this society.
Load More Replies...This is amazing! I'm so happy her kids were able to able to go on this journey through time! Her handwriting was beautiful! It's a shame they no longer teach cursive in school.
The one where she tried to draw that caricature hits me straight into my heart. I used to do the same with the comics (mostly Japanese) that I could get a hold of (of course, I didn't cut out, though, just to avoid misunderstandings).
That's the principal of Archie's high school. Archie was a popular comic book. Anybody who grew up around then would recognize him immediately.
Load More Replies...My first thought on this was that school needs better janitors! Who doesn’t clean between furniture for years? Surely at least once a year it makes sense to move stuff to do a thorough clean?! Great find, but strange find.
They said further up that there was a strip of paneling covering it up.
Load More Replies...Is it weird that I am year 1996 and still have a handwriting like this? People usually say it looks pretty but that they have a hard time decipher it since I use even some letters from the old style cursive - dunno why, it just makes it easier for me to write it :D
This is too precious! I can only imagine what Patti would think about having so many people seeing the contents of her purse from high school and now knowing who she was and to be remembered.
Man, there’s a lot of stuff packed in there. George Costanza’s got nothing on this girl!
Being female, I can assure you that that was very restrained. I remember MY purse during my high school years. It had at least 10 times the stuff there.
Load More Replies...It's fascinating to see all the cards that she had: club/group memberships, sport schedules, calendars, library cards, etc. Patti was a very active teenager.
She probably put it on top of the locker and it fell in between the crack. It looks like a piece of molding was removed, you can see the adhesive along the wall. Otherwise I think this red purse would have stood out and found much sooner. Probably we’re replacing all the lockers.
I'm sad that someone clearly took her purse and stuck it there. She must have been so upset that day.
It was the mark of you becoming a woman. She may not have actually worn it, but she *carried* it. It was a symbol she was growing up. Kinda like guys 'needing' to shave long before they actually do.
Load More Replies...So sad she didn't live to see this. Bonnie had such beautiful handwriting, wonder what became of her. Remember all those stolen pocketbooks that were found behind a restroom wall during reconstruction not long ago? I forget where, but that was also interesting. I graduated in 1961 so there were similar memories, but in Texas.
ya right, i refuse to believe the janitors did nothing about it for 60 years!
Sadly, my first thought, confirmed when I read that Patty's purse was "crammed" into the space it was found in, was that her purse was stolen and the culprit shoved it somewhere where it couldn't easily be found. If it had been a prank by one of her friends, wouldn't it have been easier to find? Back in the 90s, I was accused of stealing a small amount of money from an event that I was in charge of. The accusation was ludicrous because I was responsible for a much larger amount than the measly amount I was accused of taking. Fortunately, the accusation fell on deaf ears as the people in charge of the organization realized how ridiculous the accusation was, but the accuser never backed off. Fast-forward several years later to the installation of new flooring, a few small, personal items had been found crammed under the old flooring in the men's room. My name was on them and I had lost them around the time I had been accused of stealing money from the organization. I am female. Innocent!
How awesome !! I Love this story ! How fun that must have been for the family !! Thank you so much for sharing your story and picture !!
I found my dad's old scrapbook from his highschool in Pasco, Washington from 1948. He played football and basketball and his mother must have clipped everything from the newspaper and pasted the articles in. I have contacted his high school but have received no response. I thought they might like it as the family doesn't want it.
Very interesting, pleased the family shared, thanks, it seems to me that the cleaning person was not thorough, the purse did not seem that far in, cleaning with head down, difficult to miss, pleased the children had the memories, late but not lost forever !!!
This was explained earlier. The gap where the purse was had paneling over it the entire time! Of course nobody cleaned and didn't see it for 60 years!
Load More Replies...WOW! That was so cool! Amazing what all she carried with her. Amazing how inexpensive things were and remarkable handwriting!
Things seem inexpensive but the ratio of wages then to now, they probably weren't...
Load More Replies...Thanks for sharing! Can't help wondering what might have been in MY purse at the time!
Can't help wondering what would have been in MY purse at that time!
What a wonderful, post-lifetime walk, through such a wonderful time in her life. This quote, as I skipped reading some of the entries, was "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Now if THAT doesn't ring a bell....... what can to show the memories of a life so long ago. I was still in elementary school! Thanks, Patti!!!!
Some of us might leave phones with memes on them, and "wyd" texts. Everyone is a capsule of history
This is great. This is by far one of my most favorite posts on BP ever.
Lucky that they found this purse when they tore down the school. I bet it slipped between the metal lining of the locker and the wall and was never found. I remember buying "Evening in Paris " for my Mom as a present :) . And yes, girls wore lipstick and used pressed powder back then.. even at 14. She sure had a lot of stuff in one purse. But then again, so do I - lol. So happy this was shared. Great to see back to that era.
It's a shame she didn't get to see it all again, that would have brought back some memories for her.
What a pretty girl! It's amazing how she can have so many things kept in her purse.
So sad she did not live to see this piece of her history returned. Bonnie had such beautiful handwriting, I wonder what became of her? A pretty good drawing of "Mr. Weatherby" from "Archie Comics". I recall not long ago some stolen pocketbooks were found behind a restroom wall during reconstruction but don't remember where. I graduated in 1961 so a lot of similarities there only mine were in Texas.
My adoptive mother and her twin sister was born in Wisconsin in 1942, and graduated from high school here in California in 1960. She is still living. We have very few mementos of her teen years due to our grandparents' actions. Because of this, and as a career historian, I can appreciate the family's actions and concern. As a teacher, it is good to see that the school authorities cared about her memory, as seen with their actions. -Dr. M
I wonder how old is the logger then, I thought they would change it in some times.
Tsk. Had they gone through mine when I was 14 they would have found about 30 used kleenexes--and that was with cleaning it out every night.
Load More Replies...Thanks to the family for sharing this with the world! What a charming time capsule.
People often had such exquisite handwriting back then, they really took pride in it.
I remember having to write "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Over and over. My writing wasn't great back then, but my mother told me that smart people didn't have good hand writing lol. She had bad hand writing ... hmmmm. ;-)
Load More Replies...This was wonderful to see! Many thanks for this...yet I’m wondering just how this purse was lost.
Me too! I'm thinking it was pinched and hidden there as a joke, maybe a last day of High School prank. I had such "friends" in High School. I also wonder how it sat there for 60 years. Does no one clean?
Load More Replies...This is really cool. Makes me wonder what people would think of my purse if they found it 60/70 years later.
Same thought here. Except today everything personal is online. My purse is crammed with toiletry type things, a wallet stuffed with credit cards, maybe a notepad and pen and that's it. It wouldn't be interesting to see at all, whereas this woman's purse is filled with evidence of her social life and friends.
Load More Replies...Like a true teenager, she carries all her momentoes in her purse. I see that pressed powder is new - she must have been devastated to lose her purse. I wonder who the idiot was that hid her purse away. I hope the feels like the prat he is.
Now the next mission should be to find out who it was that hid the purse. Maybe they'll come forward eventually...
Load More Replies...This is awesome! I love digging through the past! A football game ticket was 35 cents!
I love the handwriting. Looked a lot like my grandma's. I love those days. They all obviously took such pride in their penmanship back then.
She lost a lot of membership cards and prized possessions 😞 Very inconvenient for anyone, let aside a teenager. Someone played a really dirty trick by shoving her purse there.
Oh I love this so much! I bet she regretted losing that purse! I'm sorry she died before it could be returned to her.
I personally would be MORTIFIED if the contents of my purse went viral.
I actually felt creepy by the end of the post. It's cool to put someone's personal stuff on the internet because they are dead? I dunno man. There was nothing "noteworthy" in here so it felt like a personal invasion.
Load More Replies...I am from North Canton and attended that same school. My mom went to school with Patti's sister. At that time the school was actually the high school, it became the middle school years later. Sadly the district didn't take as much care with that building as it did with the two high schools. The middle school was torn down a few years ago and I'm guessing that's when the purse was found. And no, hey did not put new lockers in!
Wonder if her and Bonnie were indeed always friends after school?? LoL
How sad must she have been to loose this, and what a shame she died before it was found.
Fascinating to see these ghosts of a past of some ordinary girl who became a nice, ordinary lady. But what will be the artifacts from today's middle schoolers decades from now? A bunch of Tik-Tok and Instagram b******t. Seeing them eating Tide pods 60 years from now will have none of the sepia toned, almost literary qualities of these things.
No one is ordinary. Also, teachers do one of the most important jobs in the world. One that is increasingly harder in this society.
Load More Replies...This is amazing! I'm so happy her kids were able to able to go on this journey through time! Her handwriting was beautiful! It's a shame they no longer teach cursive in school.
The one where she tried to draw that caricature hits me straight into my heart. I used to do the same with the comics (mostly Japanese) that I could get a hold of (of course, I didn't cut out, though, just to avoid misunderstandings).
That's the principal of Archie's high school. Archie was a popular comic book. Anybody who grew up around then would recognize him immediately.
Load More Replies...My first thought on this was that school needs better janitors! Who doesn’t clean between furniture for years? Surely at least once a year it makes sense to move stuff to do a thorough clean?! Great find, but strange find.
They said further up that there was a strip of paneling covering it up.
Load More Replies...Is it weird that I am year 1996 and still have a handwriting like this? People usually say it looks pretty but that they have a hard time decipher it since I use even some letters from the old style cursive - dunno why, it just makes it easier for me to write it :D
This is too precious! I can only imagine what Patti would think about having so many people seeing the contents of her purse from high school and now knowing who she was and to be remembered.
Man, there’s a lot of stuff packed in there. George Costanza’s got nothing on this girl!
Being female, I can assure you that that was very restrained. I remember MY purse during my high school years. It had at least 10 times the stuff there.
Load More Replies...It's fascinating to see all the cards that she had: club/group memberships, sport schedules, calendars, library cards, etc. Patti was a very active teenager.
She probably put it on top of the locker and it fell in between the crack. It looks like a piece of molding was removed, you can see the adhesive along the wall. Otherwise I think this red purse would have stood out and found much sooner. Probably we’re replacing all the lockers.
I'm sad that someone clearly took her purse and stuck it there. She must have been so upset that day.
It was the mark of you becoming a woman. She may not have actually worn it, but she *carried* it. It was a symbol she was growing up. Kinda like guys 'needing' to shave long before they actually do.
Load More Replies...So sad she didn't live to see this. Bonnie had such beautiful handwriting, wonder what became of her. Remember all those stolen pocketbooks that were found behind a restroom wall during reconstruction not long ago? I forget where, but that was also interesting. I graduated in 1961 so there were similar memories, but in Texas.
ya right, i refuse to believe the janitors did nothing about it for 60 years!
Sadly, my first thought, confirmed when I read that Patty's purse was "crammed" into the space it was found in, was that her purse was stolen and the culprit shoved it somewhere where it couldn't easily be found. If it had been a prank by one of her friends, wouldn't it have been easier to find? Back in the 90s, I was accused of stealing a small amount of money from an event that I was in charge of. The accusation was ludicrous because I was responsible for a much larger amount than the measly amount I was accused of taking. Fortunately, the accusation fell on deaf ears as the people in charge of the organization realized how ridiculous the accusation was, but the accuser never backed off. Fast-forward several years later to the installation of new flooring, a few small, personal items had been found crammed under the old flooring in the men's room. My name was on them and I had lost them around the time I had been accused of stealing money from the organization. I am female. Innocent!
How awesome !! I Love this story ! How fun that must have been for the family !! Thank you so much for sharing your story and picture !!
I found my dad's old scrapbook from his highschool in Pasco, Washington from 1948. He played football and basketball and his mother must have clipped everything from the newspaper and pasted the articles in. I have contacted his high school but have received no response. I thought they might like it as the family doesn't want it.
Very interesting, pleased the family shared, thanks, it seems to me that the cleaning person was not thorough, the purse did not seem that far in, cleaning with head down, difficult to miss, pleased the children had the memories, late but not lost forever !!!
This was explained earlier. The gap where the purse was had paneling over it the entire time! Of course nobody cleaned and didn't see it for 60 years!
Load More Replies...WOW! That was so cool! Amazing what all she carried with her. Amazing how inexpensive things were and remarkable handwriting!
Things seem inexpensive but the ratio of wages then to now, they probably weren't...
Load More Replies...Thanks for sharing! Can't help wondering what might have been in MY purse at the time!
Can't help wondering what would have been in MY purse at that time!
What a wonderful, post-lifetime walk, through such a wonderful time in her life. This quote, as I skipped reading some of the entries, was "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Now if THAT doesn't ring a bell....... what can to show the memories of a life so long ago. I was still in elementary school! Thanks, Patti!!!!
Some of us might leave phones with memes on them, and "wyd" texts. Everyone is a capsule of history
This is great. This is by far one of my most favorite posts on BP ever.
Lucky that they found this purse when they tore down the school. I bet it slipped between the metal lining of the locker and the wall and was never found. I remember buying "Evening in Paris " for my Mom as a present :) . And yes, girls wore lipstick and used pressed powder back then.. even at 14. She sure had a lot of stuff in one purse. But then again, so do I - lol. So happy this was shared. Great to see back to that era.
It's a shame she didn't get to see it all again, that would have brought back some memories for her.
What a pretty girl! It's amazing how she can have so many things kept in her purse.
So sad she did not live to see this piece of her history returned. Bonnie had such beautiful handwriting, I wonder what became of her? A pretty good drawing of "Mr. Weatherby" from "Archie Comics". I recall not long ago some stolen pocketbooks were found behind a restroom wall during reconstruction but don't remember where. I graduated in 1961 so a lot of similarities there only mine were in Texas.
My adoptive mother and her twin sister was born in Wisconsin in 1942, and graduated from high school here in California in 1960. She is still living. We have very few mementos of her teen years due to our grandparents' actions. Because of this, and as a career historian, I can appreciate the family's actions and concern. As a teacher, it is good to see that the school authorities cared about her memory, as seen with their actions. -Dr. M
I wonder how old is the logger then, I thought they would change it in some times.
Tsk. Had they gone through mine when I was 14 they would have found about 30 used kleenexes--and that was with cleaning it out every night.
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