Missing Wallet Returned after Six Decades

Sixty-three years' worth of memories came flooding back to Bill Fulton after he reconnected with a long-lost piece of his past. Earlier this month, the 78-year-old heard a knock on the door of his Baker City, Ore. home and came face-to-face with the wallet he lost in 1946 as a teenager inside the Baker Middle School gymnasium.

Workers removed the gym’s bleachers for renovations on June 17 and found an unintentional time capsule below: old homework assignments, library books, a 1964 talent show program...and Fulton’s wallet. Melanie Trindle, the Baker Middle School secretary, quickly tracked him down and hand-delivered the find to a stunned Fulton, who believes he lost the wallet while cheering for the Baker High basketball team with a group of friends.

"He was pretty much amazed," Trindle told the Baker City Herald. "He just kept saying, 'Thank you. Thank you so much.' "

The cowboy-design wallet miraculously remained in good condition, as did the contents inside, which included a social security card and a bicycle identification he needed for his part-time job delivering prescriptions for a local drugstore. Instead of focusing on the contents of the wallet itself, Fulton says the discovery led him to reflect on his life and adventures in the past six-plus decades. He was a Korean War veteran and spent time in Germany before returning to his hometown, where he became a father and worked at Ellison Lumber Company for 30 years. He retired in 1994 and now enjoys hiking with his black lab, Smokey.

"Where did all the time go?" Fulton wondered with a deep sigh. "It's hard to believe that the times have gone so fast."

It’s also hard to believe the wallet was returned to its rightful owner after so many years, but the kindness of strangers helped him reflect on a life well lived.