The discovery of this red purse offered a glimpse into what life was like for a teenager back in the 50s, living in Ohio.
In 2019, one custodian at the North Canton Middle School was fixing the lockers when he noticed a bag behind a piece of metal. Even though it was all dusty and dirty, the stuff inside was preserved.
This purse belonged to Patti Rumfola who lost it back in 1957 while she was a teen attending Hoover High School.
What Life Looked Like for Teens Back in the 50s
The stuff inside shows what a teen who was part of the community and very organized lived like. She loved her family and among the various items inside, there was also a YMCA membership, an American Junior Red Cross card, ticket stubs, sharpened pens and pencils, one calendar, and photos of her family and friends.
When the school discovered that the owner was Rumfola, they contacted the North Canton Alumni Association, hoping to give it back to her.
She graduated from Hoover High in 1960. However, she had passed away in 2013 when she was 71 in DuBois in Pennsylvania. So, she’ll never be able to see her tokens from the past. However, Rumfola apparently lived a happy, full life.
The obituary said she was a school teacher in Annapolis, Maryland. During her youth, she was an active community member and helped found the Theatre Arts Guild and the Young Women’s Club in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
She designed costumes and was also a seamstress in the Reitz theatre and loved spending time with her kids and grandkids.
The Memories from the Purse Are in the Right Hands Now
The school contacted Rumfola’s kids.
They shared the experience on their Facebook and explained how her five kids were together for a family gathering where they also opened up the purse and checked out how their mom lived while she was a teen.
Each of her kids kept one of the wheat pennies as tokens of remembrance.
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